Almost a One Layer Card. . .

There is really no way to describe how hard one layer cards are for me. They’re so mind-bogglingly challenging, they’re like my kryptonite. The few times I’ve done them, the cards I’ve made look. . . naked! So, it should come as a surprise to no one that this month’s A Muse challenge “Taking Off Some Layers,” really had me stumped.

I finally settled on using the Car Load stamp to make a simple birthday card. I figured by drawing the frame it would give some cohesiveness to my design, but even then, I just couldn’t walk away. It still needed something. So I broke down and added the purple present after the fact.

Is it truly a one layer card? I’m not sure. All I know is, this is probably the most minimalist card I’ve ever made. Now I’m off to mail the darn thing before I feel compelled to add something else to it.

Thanks for visiting!

Party Recap

Well, I survived the two parties in 10 days. And, for posterity, I thought I'd note what I did in case I ever need to coordinate things like this again.

The first party was a bridal shower fiesta. The wedding colors are orange, yellow and teal, so we decorated appropriately:















I found the directions to make these here.


In the same issue of Martha Stewart Living, she had these cute fruit cups that were just delicious!
















My friend did the food, which consisted of a do-it-yourself shrimp fajita bar, guacamole, chips and salsa, and homemade ice cream sandwiches for dessert. All in all, a great event!

Then, I co-hosted a retirement party for my boss' boss on Thursday evening at a local restaurant. Since the majority of the work was done by the hotel, I offered to do the guest book and make favors.

The guest book was actually a series of 4x6 notecards (idea here). They were bordered in the party colors and decorated with a photo from the honoree's career. We strung them up on a simple clothesline and pinned them so everyone could see the funny photos, and then the next day I put them all into an album for her to keep.














For favors, we brainstormed words that defined the retiree's career, and I made up a simple design on the computer to attach simple candy boxes that each hold 3 Hershey Nuggets. I learned how to make the box portion of these favors at a stamp convention in Las Vegas last year.


















To make the boxes, I cut my cardstock into 2 1/4 by 6 inch rectangles, then scored them lengthwise at 1 3/8 inches. Since I was making 60 of them, I found that the easiest way to do this was to masking tape where the cardstock should line up.
















This will leave you with two halves, the 1 3/8 inch half and the 7/8 inch half. Then, I scored four lines going the short way (the 1 3/8 is higher in this photo):










Cut triangles out from the 7/8 inch half (to allow the box to fold up more neatly).










Then crease all the folds and assemble! I usually attach the sides before assembling the bottom.

After a couple of hours, you'll end up with this:















A whole line-up of favor boxes!

Gift Card Holders

With the end of the school year comes the need for end-of-school-year gifts. My go-to graduation/special occasion gift for people ages 10-20 is iTunes gift cards, so I spent a couple of days making up gift card holders for everyone all at once.

To get the process started, I did a search in Google Reader for gift card holders, and came across this one by Tori Wild that's just darling. I made a tester one using the template she provided, but I really wanted horizontal ones, so I adapted her idea and made my own.















For my gift card holder, I cut a solid piece of cardstock (in this case, black) to 12inches by 2.75 inches. Then, I took my long strip and scored it at 4 inches and just under 8 inches to form the base of my holder. To make a pocket, I cut the right panel on the diagonal from the fold.












To decorate it, I cut two patterned paper panels (red polka dots in the above photos), each 3.75 inches by 2.5 inches and attached one to the front and one to the middle of the inside (behind the diagonally cut piece.) Once the patterned paper was attached, I used a skinny piece of red line tape at the bottom to create the pocket.

To create the belly band to hold the whole thing closed, I cut a 1 inch by 9 inch green strip of cardstock and wrapped it around the holder, overlapping it at the front. I stamped my image and layered it on more cardstock before adhering the whole panel to the green strip (to hide the seam).

These are a cinch to make, and it was fun to make up several graduation ones, all coordinated with the graduates' school colors.

Bring on the Blue Skies!

Happy Monday everyone! Did you have a good weekend?

Saturday I hit up my favorite LSS, Scrapbook Territory where I picked up a ton of fun new things at 25% off. Congratulations to ST on 7 years of amazing patterned papers, stamps and more! Oh, how I love that place.

Of course, as soon as I got home I had to play with some of my latest acquisitions. This cloud paper by A Muse has been out for a while now, but I hadn't gotten my hands on it until this most recent trip.

I used Tracy's Sketch Challenge for my inspiration, although the final card came out a bit different than the sketch. I also made a little sentiment banner and popped up the balloons, just for fun:



















This week, I'm looking forward to a short work week with some party planning thrown in. I'm co-hosting two parties in the next 10 days, so I'm not sure how much stamping time I'll be able to squeeze in, but I've got my fingers crossed.

Have a great week!

Birthday Scoops!

I'm still on a Denami kick, playing with the new stamps I got a couple of weeks ago at the rubber stamp show in Sacramento. The ice cream cone stamp is has been available for a while, but those darling heart chips on the fourth scoop finally did me in.

I tried to step outside my comfort zone with a brighter color scheme, and I have to say, I'm a fan. Maybe I should tackle the brights more often!

Memorial Day. . .

In honor of the holiday weekend, we visited a local cemetery to honor the holiday with a bit of a reflection. It was all decked out in flags to honor those that have served in the military, which I always find both patriotic and heart-wrenching. We finished out the holiday with an all-American BBQ with a few friends.

Thanks to all those that have served.