Stars and Hearts 3x3 Cards

I'm running low on teacher notes so I thought I'd make a quick stash using the 'Wish Upon a Star' MPP kit. I love this set because it came with a LOT of stuff that I can continually use and get inspiration from. The other day I was checking out a Youtube video by an amazing crafty woman named Rachel Tessman of StampYourArtOut.com I used her great idea to cut the white 5.5x4.25 card in half and embellish it was shapes and simple sentiments. I also love her idea of using the box as a stationary card holder- quick, easy and BRILLIANT! Thank you Rachel for sparking my creativity! This was a fun project and I'm linking over to my usual favorite hangout of My Pumpkin Challenge and participating in the 'Sweets and Treats' party. I've got to get on the ball with those burlap bags so stay tuned for another post- I hope!

My cards are sweet and I know my daughter's teachers will like the treat!

Smiling because God is ALWAYS good!

Wow September is almost over already! Blowing the dust off this blog for sure but I've been busy behind the scenes with homeschooling my 4 y.o. and overall responsibilities of home/life. I carved out some time to work on an 8x8 SU scrapbook- it took some time for sure but I love the results. In the meanwhile I also made some cards for 'just in case' occasions.

The September challenge guidelines for My Pumpkin Challenge of SMILES is timely.

With ailing parents, busy school schedules and overall life transitions, it's easy NOT smile, to feel defeated and find blame but instead I chose to SMILE, joy, love, prayer and thanksgiving to my Creator! God is good not only sometimes but ALL THE TIME. HEY THIS ALL CAPS THING IS SO CONVENIENT AND EASY TO DO, WHY IS IT UNPROFESSIONAL TO USE ALL CAPS ANYWAY? I'M REALLY NOT YELLING- OR AM I?? ha ha


O.k. here's my cards and entry for the MPC- sorry for the poor photo quality but we've been blessed with a lot of rain lately and I simply had to get this done before I completely forgot about it. Enjoy and give thanks!

I used that lovely gold foil enenvelope liners from the 'Glittered Greetings' kit. This paper was too pretty to stuff in an envelope!

This card was hard to capture because of the busy stripes but I like the stars and stripes theme for my WISH card from the WISH BIG kit. I usually don't work with purples but I like this color combo!

The last 3 cards are not for the MPC but I used some of the My Paper Pumpkin stamps and had fun making them...

               

 

                                        

                                      

Back to School & Lunchbox Notes

Tomorrow is the first day of school and my 2nd grader is so excited! I'm going to miss having her home with me and helping me a bunch but I'm also ready for her to explore a new grade, reconnect with her old friends and meet some new ones! She is God's little shining star and I'm so thankful that she can light up the world all around her. Hubby took her to meet her teacher for 'Meet the Teacher Night' and it all went very well. We have her school supplies, new clothes, and lots of prayer for another great year.

My middle child is starting Pre-K at home and she too is ready (supplies, clothes, curriculum, JESUS) to start school! I'm going to enjoy these moments home with her because this year is going to go by-FAST!

In the spirit of school lunches, I made these lunchbox notes from the latest MPP kit. I used several stamp sets from previous kits including the stamp that once said 'love your guts' that I cut and used with a heart:) Also, to make as many lunchbox cards as possible, I cut the original card in half so that I can write a short note on the back...

We're going to have a great school year and I thank God for it!!! I'm linking over to My Pumpkin Challenge for the August Wishes & Stars challenge. This kit is by far my favorite but then again I say that about all of the kits!

Always a reason to CELEBRATE!

This summer has been the most restful and relaxing summer for us- I have enjoyed having my oldest home and together the girls are a big help to me and their little brother. We've also had several mini-vacays and it's been nice to get away but then come back to our comfy haven!

Before this latest trip, I made this gift tags for upcoming birthday parties, gifts to friends, etc. I like the fresh color combos and those tiny MPP hearts/stars are simply divine. I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of my SU 'Be the Star' stamp set- the possibilities with this kit is limitless!

I'm linking over at My Pumpkin Challenge for the Wishes and Stars challenge. I love this sweet blog because I'm able to play with ALL my goodies from my kit. I think I've been a subscriber for over a year now and I'm always thrilled to create but also bless others with my creations- yeah!!!

I have another entry on the way but I'm curious to think 'outside the box' and spark my creativity for this Pumpkin Kit...

jessicalubbock.blogspot.com

Scrapbooking Club

On Saturday the ladies from my scrapbooking club met at my house to scrapbook some fun Memorial/July 4th memories. I really enjoy carving out the time to create something tangible and at the same time share and use my SU supplies! For this layout, I primarily used materials from the My Paper Pumpkin 4th of July kit. Although I don't have the 'perfect' 4th of July photo for this page, I stumbled across this picture of my boy playing in our kitchen sink. I can't believe he was ever that small!!!

I am making one last entry into the MPC Celebrate challenge- there are so many cute ideas on this blog (esp. those TAGS)-- I'm always so inspired by this creative team:)

I still need to add a journal entry to my layout page but overall I'm very pleased with the look...

Summer Celebrations

It's been a while since my last post- so busy to say the least but enjoying every single day! The weather has been beautiful of late but I've really been enjoying having my oldest around for the summer and just taking things easy...

I found some time to make a couple of birthday cards and here's one I made using SU 'Sweet Sorbet' dsp from the Sale-bration catalog. I love this paper set and the black with the contrast really makes it all come together. Birthday's are always so fun to celebrate!

This next card I made for the My Pumpkin Challenge 'Happy Everything' This month's theme is fun and there's so many possibilities with the papers, embellishments and stamp sets!

Teacher Gifts & Tags

This month has been a roller coaster of joy, hope and peace! My baby Jack is O-N-E- and amazes us all with his charm and climbing skills! My sweet Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year and really battled with pneumonia, blood clots, starvation, etc. But God- God has restored him and revived him. Today is better than yesterday and I think of Hezekiah's prayer and how the Lord God both healed and lengthened his life! My Dad is getting stronger every day and who knows when the Lord will call any of us home but I'm thankful that he's here today--pain-free, eating, getting around and most importantly praising God!

Now that school is almost over and my 1st grader will be graduating this week, I wanted to make some simple thank you gifts for all the support teaching staff. Buying gift cards is just too costly so we decided to bake brownies and bless them with a sweet treat. The administrative support staff and auxiliary teachers are awesome and I never want to exclude them in my gratitude for helping my daughter have a great year at her new school. From the librarian and nurse to the coaches and art teacher- we managed to include everyone with this fast and cost-effective gift.

I used my tags from last month's mother's day kit and it all came together pretty fast. I'm linking over at My Pumpkin Challenge  and I'm glad I found the time to participate in this fun challenge!

My Paper Pumpkin and Scrapbooking

With the start of a new SU scrapbooking club in town, I have been enjoying the creative outlet for telling the story of our lives with photos. It's so refreshing to sit down and complete something lasting and relive the memory of the fun times we experience.What I like about scrapbooking is the diversity of styles, the fun themes to play around with and all the cool embellishments. I LOVE embellishments- ribbons, buttons, tags-- the works!

In this layout, I just focused on the color family and used a LOT of this and that from my extra stash of items from my My Paper Pumpkin (MPP) kits. The photo sentiments, letters, wood-cuts, glitter dots, and arrow stamps are all MPP :) Even those 3 small stitched stars (from the December kit which I adore) are MPP. These kits spark such fun ideas that can be done rather quickly and in so many different design options that I'm always amazed. The contents of these kits never seem to run out (okay I used up all my stash making cards from my 1st or 2nd kit I think but now I know better ;)) but seriously, these kits are like GREMLINS. Yes-- shout out to the 80's!! Um- no.

Anyway, I had fun making this scrapbook page; now I feel content with at least one page done and I won't even think about all the pages I need to complete- yikes!
I'm linking over at the 'Special Moments' party going on at My Pumpkin Challenge. It's a late entry but the idea came to me on Friday and I just had to make time to play!!!

All Things Gold

Lately I have really taken a liking to the color GOLD- it's such a timeless/classic color that can pretty much be paired with any other color. I was beyond excited to open up this month's My Paper Pumpkin kit 'Glittered Greerings'. I love the pop of aqua blue and the wood die-cuts are fabulous. There are so many options to dress them up or leave them as is! I'm also excited about building up my stash of photopolymer stamps- yippee!!

For this card, I embossed the wood die-cut and used my gold sequin trim to shape a heart. I added a button and some string to pull it all together. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this kit and I can't wait to create some more...

I'm linking over to the Special Moments party at my favorite hangout- My Pumpkin Challenge and I can't wait to see how the design team and other entries inspire me to 'go for the gold'!

Family Keepsake Catch-All-- BACK

I found some time this week to finish the back of my family journal book and I'm really enjoying the fresh look of colors! This was a fast project from start to finish and if there is ever the opportunity to re-order this kit, I'm adding my name to the list! To complete this project I mixed a blend of blue and white acrylic paint to paint the entire back of the bag, I then used some embossing powders on the 'Real Life' letters from the journal My Paper Pumpkin (MPP) kit, added a touch of embellishments from the 'Good Life Brag Book' MPP kit (this kit had so many fun dsp to play with that I wish the paper came in larger sizes!), and pulled it all together with the SU 'Sycamore Street' DSP- this is a beautiful set of paper that I'm going to use often...I also used the cute ink blot stamp in Island Indigo from the 'Hey There' MPP kit- this little stamps makes a BIG impact.

Again, this was fun and my girls liked it and thought it was 'adorable'--I agree!  Updating my entry over at My Pumpkin Challenge. I had fun playing with this Circles and Bags challenge. Looking forward to seeing what's in store for us next month!

Family Catch-All Keepsake Journal FRONT COVER

I can't wait to share with you my latest creation using the Paper Pumpkin 'In the Bag' kit. I liked the original idea of using them as gift bags but felt something greater was in store for them and so I created an unique Family Catch-All Keepsake Journal. For a while now I've been inspired to get a little messy and stretch the stamping boundaries by incorporating various mediums in a project- paint, recyclables, texture, etc. and I have been particularly inspired by artist Christy Tomilson. I normally like things nice and tidy so it was a refreshing break from my norm to layer My Paper Pumpkin stamps with various inks and embossing powders. It's a busy journal front but I love the layout, the many different embellishments and the pop of dsp colors.

To make this journal, I layered the bags in an accordion style and glued them together. I inserted some ribbons for added flair and stacked some heavy books on top while the glue dried (no special glue was used just some tube glue that I had around the house...). I'm able to open the bags wide enough to stuff pictures, bookmarks, artwork from my kids or any other random keepsakes that we discover. It's sturdy and the items won't fall out! It was a breeze to create and I'm glad I found a greater purpose for this month's kit. I'm working on designing the back of the journal so stay tuned...

I'm hanging out at the party over at My Pumpkin Challenge and linking up to the Circles & Bags challenge. It's weird getting this challenge entry in early for a change despite my busy life with my 3 kids! My 10 month little man is walking now so that's a whole new level of BUSY- eeks!!!!

3x3 Teacher Notes

Wow- February where have you've flown too?! This month is rapidly coming to an end but I have enjoyed every day of it! Life is short and if you focus on the negative, life is even shorter! I love being centered by Christ and I'm amazed how all the little and big blessings are always a prayer away...

For a while now I've been meaning to make some quick and easy notes to pack in my daughter's school folder. Notes such as 'I'm picking Sarah up today' or 'here is money for Sarah's field trip' always look better on SU paper instead of a dog-eared scratch of paper that I quickly scribble on at the bus stop!

I needed some inspiration so this month's My Pumpkin Challenge fit the bill and I always enjoy any opportunity to use MPP kits! The theme for this month's challenge is 'All About Love' and using stamps, paper, and pre-cut shapes made this 3x3 notecard project a breeze. I used something from nearly all of my kits: Wahoo, Love Notes, Hello to You, Party Pennants, Pedal Praise, and Real Life Journal. If I was pressed to pick my favorite kit, I couldn't do it- I enjoy all of them very much!!!

Here are my 'from parent to teacher' 3x3 notes and envelopes. I'm linking over at My Paper Pumpkin right here:

Real Life- Address Book

I absolutely adore this month's My Paper Pumpkin kit- 'Real Life'. The pop of colors, embellishments, and simplicity of design style blows me away! When I first saw this journal kit, I knew I was going to revamp it into an address book/journal. I'm not only terrible about knowing what day it is but also, I need to transcribe my cell numbers into an address book. If I lost my cell, I would have no way of contacting my husband, family, friends, etc.- scary!!!

I recycled a few items on this address book by using a security envelope we received in the mail (I love the close set stripes) and the 'thank you' postcard that comes in every MPP kit to make the bird. I also used some standard wide-ruled notebook paper to write all my addresses/phone numbers in. The best part is whenever an address or number changes, I simply open the rings and insert new page-- ta-dah! I used my Brother P-Touch label maker to add the alphabet groupings on the tabs.

I'm playing with the latest My Pumpkin Challenge 'You & Me' party. This is a 'Me' project that is much needed and long overdue. I love this challenge team because there's always fun and fresh ideas!

Love Birds Memo Pad

There are so many great recycling ideas on the web/Pinterest with cereal boxes so when I had a spare box lying around, I wanted to use it to make something practical, yet simple. I decided on making a memo pad (from scratch) and I was inspired from a couple of sites from here and here.

This was the first time I used my SU bird punch given to me by my good friend Jessica U.! I recycled the 'thank you' card that comes in the My Paper Pumpkin Kit and used my bird punch to capture some of those fun colors. I like the results!

My oldest loves to write- on anything and all the time- this will be a fun Valentine's treat for her.

Linking to the My Paper Pumpkin Challenge 'You and Me' series- it's for You (my big girl) from Me (Mom)