(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Today I want to share with you guys some cards I made recently. I've got to hunker down and make a few more this evening because I've got a bunch of birthdays coming up!

An Engagement Card

An Anniversary Card

A Thinking of You Card

A Thinking of You Card

A Thinking Of You Card

A Birthday Card

What fun craft things do you like to do? Do you find it as relaxing as I do?

Cindy

Valentine Cards

I love making cards for people. In fact, I just really love making cards in general. It's so fun to be creative and see what kinds of things I can make! I will admit though that most of my cards are CASE cards. (Copy and Share Everything) Sometimes I don't feel very creative and so I look through Pinterest or Split Coast Stampers for ideas. Awesome website and resource. Anyway, I get the inspiration and then I make it my own!

Because I love to make cards for people and because I have lots of people to love, I really enjoy making Valentine's. This year I made a dozen cards and sent them to my close friends and family!

Most of the supplies I used are Stampin' Up, however a few of the embellishments I got at Michael's and Target. If you have any questions about any of the cards' specifics, please don't hesitate to ask! I'd be more than happy to give you an exact breakdown of what I used for each card! And feel free to CASE my cards and make them your own!

Cindy

Oh How Wonderful

Do you ever have one of those weekends that was just what you needed? That's what this weekend was for me. Friday evening once Collin and I were both home from work we headed to Red Robin for an impromptu date night. We had both been craving some juicy burger goodness and what better a place than Red Robin to satisfy that craving? We had a delicious meal and then headed home. Collin played Metal Gear Solid 3 for a couple hours while I created our advent calendar. It took a bit longer than I expected but I love how it turned out. Now if only we could just get it hung...

Saturday morning after Collin headed into work I went over to my parents' house and my mom and I created a wreath for our front door. I LOVE how it turned out. It's exactly what I had been envisioning and wanted! I'm glad I got to spend that time with my mom, too! Then later in the day Collin and I practiced our song we were performing that evening at Figgy Pudding, a fundraiser some ladies at our church put on to benefit the church's Wednesday night community dinner. Figgy Pudding is an event where you buy seats at tables that people have decorated very festive and you listen to various musical numbers and eat delicious desserts made by people from the church. Collin and I performed the Mark Harris version of Silent Night which is so beautiful! I also got to play with the hand bell choir. I haven't played hand bells in several years but I played for quite a few before that. Anyway, the director comes up to me and asks me if I would sight read and play the hand bells because they were short two people. He was going to play one set of bells and needed me to fill in on the others. Haha! Fun, but a little nerve wracking!

Sunday was a great day! Church was fantastic! It's absolutely amazing the way God makes everything go together so well! Our praise music fit the message PERFECTLY even though the music was picked without knowing what the message would be. It was SO a God thing! After church Collin cooked us some delicious fried rice! We both thoroughly enjoyed it. I love when Collin experiments in the kitchen. We usually get some pretty awesome results! The afternoon consisted of us running all over town running errands and buying groceries. We were in desperate need of food in our house. I mean, we had food, but the reason Collin made fried rice is because we had odd stuff that you can't really eat together. And we couldn't even have grilled cheese because we were out of bread! So now we are well stocked up on food! My mom invited us over for a chili dinner so we spent the evening over there and had a yummy dinner and cookies hot from the oven for dessert! When we got home, I holed myself up in the bedroom with Seabass while Collin and Stank watched The Walking Dead in the living room. I would watch the show if it weren't so gruesome. I ask Collin questions all the time about the characters and what went on because it's got such a great story, but I am too weak-stomached for some of the stuff.

I'd say it was most definitely just the weekend I needed!! I hope you had a great weekend, yourself! I hope it was just what you needed and it's given you the stamina to start this week off on the right foot!

Cindy

Autumn Cards

I mentioned last week that my mother-in-law and I got together and made a bunch of autumn cards to send to people. Today I want to share with you guys the cards that I made. When I make multiple cards I usually do two of the same/similar style at a time; when you cut an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of card stock in half it is the perfect size for two cards. I had a lot of fun making these cards and I got most of my inspiration from Pinterest and Split Coast Stampers.

This was the first set of cards I made. I much prefer the one on the left with the button and ribbon, the other looks so bare, but I had already glued my paper down before realizing I forgot my ribbon. And it wasn't too big a deal so I left it.

I thought these were really cute and fun. The tiny leaves made me smile.

I really like how the text behind the frame turned out. I think it adds a neat effect to the card.

This was my favorite set. I just love how the colors turned out and I love the dimension on this one!

I really do love making cards. It's so fun and it's so therapeutic! If you want to know how I made any of these or what products I used, leave me a comment or send an email and I'd be happy to tell you!

Cindy

Making Cards

I've been stamping/card making for about a year now and I LOVE it. My collection of supplies to make cards is slowly but surely growing and I love being able to find new things to make and new products to use. Pinterest has been a great help in giving me design inspirations for my cards! I have a board called Cards to Make and I love being able to explore and find neat cards.

Another thing I love about card making is it's really fun and easy to do with friends. My friend Jeannie and I get together and make cards every once in a while! In fact, this past weekend she and I got together with some other ladies and had a card making day. It's so much fun to do because then you not only get to use your supplies but we all share our supplies with each other so my options get even larger!

I love being able to have an occasion that I need a card for and being able to sit down and take some time and make exactly what I need. Plus, in the long run it's a lot cheaper than running to Hallmark and buying a card every time I need one (which I used to do and I was spending WAY too much money per year!). The upfront cost may be a lot for making your own cards but once you've got supplies it's way less expensive!

Anyway.. I wanna show you guys some of the stuff I made this past weekend! I have some other cards I've made that I wanna share but for now I'll show off what I made this weekend. I don't want to inundate you all at once. =)

This is a birthday card for a friend.
This is a really cool new technique that we tried out at our workshop this past month!

Another birthday card for a friend in its first state.

The other state of the card. I found this technique via Pinterest.

These were a set of note cards that I made as a gift for a friend. I had so much fun making these! They're all similar but still slightly different. They are approximately 3 1/2 x 3 1/4 or something like that. I don't remember exactly what size I cut them as. However, next time I do this I'll make them 3 x 3 so I can buy actual square envelopes that they will fit in. I didn't have the time to make envelopes and the tiny note card size ones they sell in Michael's were only 3 x 3.

If you want the instructions for how to make the first two cards, send me an e-mail or leave a comment and I'll be sure to get you the instructions! They turned out really neat and I will definitely be making these styles again! And I love the little note cards. They might be a go-to gift of mine!!

Cindy

DIY: Heart Garland

You guys probably don't remember this post where I talked about making a garland of hearts made out of paint samples. I attempted to get the supplies to make it the day I posted it but couldn't find everything I needed, so later that week I created it but I NEVER posted about it. Earlier this week my dear friend Kaitlin sent me a text message with a picture of her own heart garland she had made and told me I was her inspiration and that I need to post about my finished project. And I figure why not post about it now since it's the perfect Valentine's decoration!

To make them: You can use whatever color paint samples you want. For this one I used a wide variety of colors since it was going in our bedroom and I wanted some pizazz. But I am currently in the process of making another with various shades of purple/pink for a Valentine's themed one. Also, any heart punch will work. You can make it thin and long or fat and kinda short like I did. You just need the hearts to be large enough to thread string through. Basically once you punch out all the hearts, you thread your string into a needle and begin "sewing" the thread through each of your hearts. It's really quite simple and makes for a pretty wall decor item!

Ignore the extra holes in the wall. Collin's parents had some stuff up there and they didn't patch up the walls when we moved in. =/ So yeah... there you have a very simple and fun DIY Valentine's decoration project! Or any kind of DIY decoration, since I made it just for an everyday decoration. =) What do you guys think? Fun?

Cindy

Some Fun for Love Day

Since Valentine's Day is approaching quickly, I thought I would give you all some potential fun (and inexpensive) gift ideas for the love in your life. I actually did both of these at Christmas for Collin but they will work just as well for Valentine's Day.

This first one is fun and definitely something to do if you want to have a casual/light hearted evening.
One evening before Collin got home from work I set the scene for this awesome battle...

This one was really easy to put together. I just bought a two pack of Nerf guns at Wal-Mart (about $15) and then wrote on a notepad I had at home to set up the scene. When I heard Collin come home I quickly found a hiding place and waited for him to come down the stairs. Then when he was in range I started shooting my Nerf darts at him and he reciprocated. Oh my gosh it was so much fun! I think Collin definitely won. He hit me square on the forehead with one dart! And I did hit him, just not as much as he hit me. =) Collin loved this though!

This next one is a bit more lovey and possibly more suited for a sweet/romantic Valentine's evening.

This one was a little more involved in the thinking department but was by far much cheaper. I bought a new deck of cards which cost me $1. Then I had to come up with things to write on the cards and it was a lot of fun to think of a bunch of different things I love about Collin and to be able to come up with things that fit what the card was. And I was especially careful not to cover up the markings on the card because I wanted us to be able to use the cards. Collin also enjoyed this gift and I think it made him feel very special to see all those reasons why I love him.

Since these were both Christmas gifts I don't know what I'm getting Collin for Valentine's Day yet. I need to get on that! Any suggestions?

Cindy

Washing the Windows

I was gonna post pictures of my project I posted about yesterday but here's what happened... I went to Jo Ann's after work to pick up a heart shaped hole punch and some string. Then I was heading to Wal-Mart to get some groceries and I was gonna grab some paint samples while I was there. Jo Ann's did not have a heart shaped hole punch. I looked EVERYWHERE and not a one. They had other cool shapes but none that I wanted/that were big enough. So I headed to Wal-Mart hoping they might have one but of course they didn't. And by this time it was storming off and on and I had groceries so I wasn't gonna go to another store to look. So I didn't pick up any paint samples while in Wal-Mart either because I figured I'd get them once I finally found my hole puncher. I get home and find out my mother-in-law has a heart shaped one I can borrow. So, now I have my hole punch and string but no paint samples. Fail. Anyway, I'm hoping to get the samples sometime this week and then I'll post my pictures!

So because today's post will not be filled with pretty hearts, I figured I'd leave you with two short videos of my adorable Stank "washing the windows". He does this ALL the time when he wants to go out onto the back porch. We think it's quite amusing. I love that cat to death.




Cindy

Hearts All Around

I was browsing around Pinterest earlier and I found this picture. Or I suppose it's a tutorial picture. Anyway, I am doing this. I love to look around Pinterest and see all the pretty projects and design ideas people post. I love getting my Real Simple e-mails and my Good Housekeeping e-mails and viewing all the pretty decor things. But not having a real space of my own, it's hard to decorate. It's almost like I'm living in a dorm again but even in my dorm I felt like I had more room to decorate than I do living in my in-law's basement. Now don't get me wrong, the place is decorated, it's just not *my* decorations or designs and what not. So, I saw this and I decided I am going to make it. It's something simple and inexpensive to make. And I won't feel like I'm intruding by hanging this up. So this afternoon I'll be heading out on an adventure to collect paint samples in fun colors, pick up a heart shaped hole punch (it's a good thing to add to my collection, anyway!) and some string and then I'll be going home and making myself an awesome garland to hang in our bedroom! I'm really excited about it!

Have you ever completed any fun projects like this? I can't wait to see how it turns out. And I can't wait until I have my own place to really decorate and do more fun DIY projects!

Cindy

DIY: Party Poms

My mom's 50th birthday is on Monday and she wanted to have a party but she didn't want to plan it. My sister and I, with the help of our aunt, have been planning a big birthday celebration for this Friday evening. I'll definitely post more details after the event, but for now I just wanted to post about one of the decorations we're going to have.

Ever since I was wedding planning and then even more so when planning my sister's bridal shower, I've been in love with party poms. Now I know they're more so "out" and bunting is "in" at this moment, but I still wanted to do it and Kaity liked the idea, too. So we found this great tutorial over at Martha Stewart and we got to work. We bought a variety of different tissue paper in the colors for the party and I found some flower wire covered in white fabric. We set out a spot on my kitchen table and began making the poms. It's really quite simple to make. And I regret that I forgot to take pictures of the making process. However, if you click on the link above it will take you to a step by step tutorial guide for how we made them. Regardless of whether you want the poms to be big or small use 8 sheets of tissue paper like it calls for. If you want them to be smaller just use smaller pieces of tissue paper, we ended up buying a pack of 50 sheets of tissue. It had 5 colors so there were 10 of each color. We made one of each color as large poms and then we cut the remaining two sheets of tissue paper first in half along the long edge and then stacked it and then cut it in half again now along the new long edge to make it so we had 8 pieces stacked on top of each other. We tried to make a pom with only three pieces of tissue stacked and it looked so pathetic. The more layers you have the pouffier and better it will look!

Here's two pictures of the poms awaiting Friday afternoon in my spare room upstairs. I'm definitely going to take pictures at the party and I'll show you the finished result of them hanging up in the clubhouse.

Have you ever made poms like this before? If so, how did yours turn out? What other fun party decorations are out there that I should be aware of? I'm finding that I really like planning parties and the like!

Cindy