FM164 Daddy's Little Girl

The last couple of years, I've kind of just thrown Father's Day gifts together. I feel like I owe it to my dad to do something extra special this year.

When I saw yesterday's ScrapMuch? sketch, I was totally inspired. The other thing is that I rarely give photo gifts of myself; most of the time, they are gifts of my children. Challenge YOUrself provided me the perfect opportunity to include myself in the layout.

Recipe:
Paper: Chantilly (retired), Twilight CS, White Daisy CS (CTMH)
Stamp: Chantilly Card Workshop (retired) (CTMH)
Inks: Twilight, Pear, Cotton Candy, Whisper (CTMH)
Tools: Sponge, Paper-Piercer, Micro-Tip Scissors, Stitch-Guide Ruler, Cricut Art Philosophy (CTMH)
Other: Chantilly PML, Pearls (retired) (CTMH), Pink Embroidery Floss (DMC)

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
1) ScrapMuch? 6-13-14 Challenge
2) Challenge YOUrself: Oh Boy! #7 Challenge
3) The Friday Mashup! FM164 Challenge

I am planning to put this into a shadow box frame before gifting tomorrow. Happy Father's Day!

Casandra

Birthday Invitation

My son turns 8 on the 8th. It's his special golden birthday. I am still unsure about what significant things I may do for him yet. Maybe we will plan a nice lunch somewhere after church. He really wants to go to the bowling alley.

So life has been super busy this past month, what with celebrating Izzy's birthday and then Mother's Day, and then our big camping adventure downstate. I barely had time to get his invites done in time. I will admit to checking into the quick photo invites you can get printed through Snapfish and pick up locally. I spent an hour designing an invitation only to discover that the price wasn't really just 55 cents per print. You had to buy 20 of them, and it depended on the printing service you went though what the final cost would be, based on photo or luxe paper. It would have cost me about $32 to print them. Guess I'm cheap; I wasn't willing to pay that much.

Fast forward, the following night was crunch time. I had to have them finished so they'd go home in his classmates Friday Folders. I ended up spending about 4 hours making up 20 invitations myself by hand. My lovely Cricut happily chirped along and I even used up a lot of discounted papers to create them with. If I had to guess, I probably had about $8 total into making them myself. I was able to cut out 2 invitation pockets per colored cardstock, and 4 ticket invites per white cardstock. 

I used Big Top stamp set, and followed the instructions from Kristine's Party Favors video. I didn't really change it up much. But since I was in a pinch, I decided not to be fussy with what scraps of paper I'd be using, and grabbed whatever was in my scrap drawer beneath my work desk. In this case, I had just a few small scraps of Moon Doggie left. It was my very first Close To My Heart workshop attendance. It all began with Moon Doggie, and I was hooked on Close To My Heart after that.

I used Lagoon, Sunset, Slate, and Black inks for my invitations. Jack was really excited to pass them out the next day, and one mom we passed in the hallway remarked at how crafty I was. Yeah, we'll go with crafty. Works for me!

Have a fun rest of your week! We're now in the home stretch! 

Casandra

Base and Bling Necklace

I made this necklace over a month ago, but since it was a gift for my daughter, I decided to wait to premier it here on my blog.

I promise you that this little girl loves her necklace very much. She has worn it to school twice already, and wears it around the house, too. But I caught her on a day when she was clear full of sass. I constantly have to tell her to smile "normal". LOL

If you'd like to make your own necklace, supplies can be ordered from my website. The only tool that I really needed was our Liquid Glass. I added some glue to the inside of the pendant, and then laid the "sticker" on top of it. Then I gently pressed down until it was flat and wiped the excess glue up with a wet paper towel. Then, I added more liquid glass on top of the image, and adhered the glass front to it, being careful to press out any bubbles as I worked. The video clip that I can't seem to find today suggests you use baby wipes, but the wet paper towel worked fine for me. Liquid Glass starts to set within a minute. I set it aside and checked back with it every minute or two to make sure no new bubbles had appeared. It was completely finished in about 10 minutes. Then you just add whatever charms you'd like. 

My daughter loves owls. She has a big purple owl hat, an owl backpack, and even owl pj's. What a hoot! (Okay, well, I thought it was funny.)

I am hoping to create a necklace for myself soon. I do have allergies to certain metals, but I did wear Izzy's necklace for a short bit and had no problems with it. For about $10, you can create a one of a kind, unique to you, necklace. This is one product I hope we don't discontinue too soon. It's just plain fun.

Have a great day!

Casandra

Scrapbook Generation June Blog Hop

Welcome to the Scrapbook Generation Blog Hop for June. If this is your first stop, you might like to start at the Scrapbook Generation blog and then hop through each link.

I made this layout for my daughter's 6th birthday that we celebrated this past month. It is no surprise that I bought a dress to match the paper I planned to use. LOL I knew this sketch was perfect the minute I saw it. I could add a bold title and use one of our gorgeous zip strips that are included with each patterned paper we sell. 

Recipe:

Sketch: April 2014 Free Sketch from Create Magazine

Paper: Ariana, White Daisy CS, Sorbet CS (CTMH)

Stamps: Shining Star (retired), Marquee Alphabet, Ariana WOTG, Artbooking (CTMH)

Inks: Sorbet, Crystal Blue, Outdoor Denim, Olive (CTMH)

Tools: Paper-Piercer, Micro-Tip Scissors, Sponge, Needle (CTMH)

Other: White Embroidery Floss, Outdoor Denim Brads, Sorbet Brads, Olive Brads, White Daisy Brads (all retired - CTMH)

You can find the SG sketches in their books and as downloads in the SG store, and there is a free one every month in case you want to try it out. Here is a link to CREATE Magazine: http://scrapbookgeneration.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=8

Next on the hop is Lori at My Happy Life Blog. Leave a comment on each blog and one lucky commenter will receive a free sketch bundle of their choice from the store. The winner will be drawn on Monday, June 9th which gives you one week to leave a comment. (What fun!) Thank you for stopping by today.

In case you get lost at any point, here is the list of all the blogs:

Scrapbook Generation blog - http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/

Ruth - http://scrapmachine.com/

Steffanie - http://steffanies.blogspot.com/

Devra -  http://mycreativeview.blogspot.com/

Cassie - http://allsmilesandsunshine.blogspot.com/

Stephanie - http://craftyholidaygirl.blogspot.com

Michelle - http://ownerofchanel.blogspot.com

Katy - http://scrappinkaty.blogspot.com

Tina Gale - http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com

Corrina - http://anotherthingoffthelist.blogspot.ca/

Casandra - http://casandra-scrappinbliss.blogspot.com/

Lori - http://loriannie670.blogspot.com

Tasha - http://tashascreativejuice.blogspot.com/

Lori - http://savingmine.blogspot.com/

Cicily - http://pinkdalmatianscrapper.com

Ariana Workshop

Good afternoon! I had a wonderful morning at church today. The Pastor talked to us about being like Barnabas from the Bible...to go and be an "Encourager". When he asked the congregation if anyone knew what Barnabas meant, it was one of the youngest girls at our church that spoke up with the correct answer. That was rather humbling and wonderful all at the same time. I guess the only encouragement that I can really think of for today is to be more kind. If each of us took a moment to respond with an extra kind word or two to each other, this world would be such a better place for it. Just something for you to think about....

Now, onto sharing my Ariana artwork with you. I will have to save one layout for tomorrow because it will be featured with other blogs as part of the Scrapbook Generation hop. Please be sure to check back tomorrow morning for that one. It's one of my favorites. :)

The last layout awaits pictures from my daughter's Kindergarten Graduation set for this upcoming Thursday night. She kind of rolled her eyes today about it. Seems she doesn't get why if she graduated Preschool already, that she has to have a graduation ceremony for Kindergarten, too. I told her to enjoy every minute of it because she won't be "graduating" again until high school. 

Recipe:
Paper: Ariana, Ivy Lane, Ariana Coral CS, Ariana Green CS, Slate CS, White Daisy CS, Outdoor Denim CS (CTMH)
Stamps: Ariana WOTG, Dreamer (CTMH)
Inks: Outdoor Denim, Sorbet, Crystal Blue, Olive (CTMH)
Tools: Paper-Piercer, Micro-Tip Scissors, Sponge (CTMH)
Other: Black & Grey Epoxy Bubbles, Ariana Assortment, Ariana Complements, Olive Mini-Medley (retired), Glue Dots (CTMH)

I didn't make a lot of changes to the main workshop layout. For the "Chase Your Dreams" layout, a friend loaned me the "Dreamer" stamp. I think it will be darling with Izzy's graduation pic's (hopefully, I get some good ones!). For the "Smile" layout, I knew which template I would use so I could incorporate the 8x10 photo. I wish that the photo printer would do a better job of making sure that 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10's were actually true to size. My suggestion for this layout would be to cut the 2x8 piece a little more than 2". You can always cover the edge of it with your photo if it's not right, but at least you won't have a white strip glaring at you. Or you can do as I did, and take some ribbon and cover the seam up. Even a zip strip cleverly cut would be cute!

My workshop is scheduled for Friday, June 20th, at 6:30 pm. Contact me today to reserve your spot. RSVP's and orders must be placed by Monday, June 9th.

Thanks so much! Hope you are having a terrific weekend.

Casandra