End of Year Teacher Gift Basket - Line Alphabet & Pick a Pennant

They say it is better to give than to receive and I surely enjoying giving.  I hope I don't get any looks from other moms tomorrow as I may have gone overboard here - but I really do enjoy making extra special gifts and our son's teacher is amazing!  (Aren't they all??)

Plus, if you take away the 3 ginormous bags of chex mix, this would all fit in a smaller bag and it wouldn't look as big!  (Sorry.. feel like I need to defend this awesome gift!)

One of the many things I love about Stampin' Up! is the products that make gift giving so fun.  The ribbon, stamp sets, tags.. It not only makes it pretty, it makes it easy!

Our son's teacher told me earlier in the year that she loves all kinds of chex mixes, so I decided to make 3 different kinds.  These will be great snacks for road trips, camping or poolside.  I decided to make little tags with the Pick a Pennant stamp set.  This is a great small alphabet for little labels.  (I even thought some of the other stamps in the set looked like chex, so I made little banners with them as well.

Tucked in the side of the basket are two 8 packs of thank you/note cards.  These were made with the Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper, the Artisan Textures stamp set, Thankful Thoughts stamp set, Wood Words stamp set and some Berry Burst Ribbon.  I made an assembly line and this came together while I watched a movie with my kids. Win, win!

In the back of the basket is my favorite gift that I made.  I had an extra canvas and hoop in my craft stash that someone gave me once so this craft technically cost me nothing!  #thisiswhyIhoard

The stamp set is called Lined Alphabet and is a must have in your stamp collection.  I have seen so many great cards made with this.  A nice versatile set.

I stamped the letters in Memento Black Ink and colored them with my Blends.

I tried not to blend them too much to give the letters a watercolored look.

I dressed the hoop up with coordinating ribbon!  I love that Stampin' Up! is matchy-matchy.  It makes my heart happy!

I am so excited to give this to our son's teacher.  Teachers are such amazing people and they give so many hours and dedication for our children.  We are blessed...

I hope you have a great weekend!  School is out tomorrow! Woohoo!

Blessings,

Holly

Banana Bread for "The Egg Lady"

The boys and I found a local family that sell farm fresh eggs and other week the younger 3 and I went and picked up a few dozen.  Ms Karen - the egg lady as the boys once called her - was sweet to let the boys check out the chickens while we were there.  They thought they were just going for the ride!

Two weeks went by and Ms Karen told me that the boys were welcome to come back to see the new babies on the farm.  A few baby goats were born earlier this month and she thought they'd enjoy seeing them.  So Friday night we drove over to her and her husband's property to pick up more eggs and see the animals.

I wanted to make them something to say thank you for letting us barge in on their Friday night so I made a loaf of fresh banana bread and wrapped it with a fun little tag.

I think the Tutti Fruiti DSP from the Occasions Catalog was perfect for this as was the chicken from the (retired) Hey, Chick stamp set.

The oven mitt is from Apron of Love and the "thank you big time" stamp is from the new Animal Outings stamp set that you can order starting on FRIDAY!  Woohoo!

Ms Karen's husband didn't wait at all and ripped a chunk off the end!  But they were touched that we brought the banana bread.  I was happy to bake and love to make something extra special to say thank you.

Here are the boys petting the little kid... I mean, little goat. :)

It was a pretty special Friday :)

I encourage you to do something extra for someone this week!  Send a card, bake some cookies, buy someone's coffee... Be the good in the world :)

Blessings,

Holly

Hello and Goodbye!

As we say goodbye to May and hello to June, we are also saying goodbye to some great Stampin' Up! products and hello to some really exciting new product!  It's always a bittersweet time of year when a new catalog rolls around.  I love the excitement of new stamp sets, new paper, embellishments - and this year - INK!!   But it's always tough to say farewell to some favorites.

Today I'm sharing a card I CASEd (Copy and Selective Edit) from one of the Stampin' Success magazines (exclusive to demonstrators).  I liked this card so much that I made about a dozen of this card!

I love the soft look of the tone on tone Pinewood Planks embossing folder with the doilies and soft colors.  Very shabby chic I think! :)

So what are we saying goodbye to here?  Thankfully NOT the Linen Thread or Pinewood Planks folder, but we do say farewell to the lovely Lace Doilies.  I absolutely love this embellishment and have stocked up pretty good.  Do you have any laying around?  They add such a sweet little detail to cards - love that lace peeking behind a layer.

We're also saying adios to the Ticket Border Punch.  Another great punch that adds some fun detail.

As sad as it is to say goodbye, I assure you.. the new catalog is awesome!! Page after page of wonderful new stamp sets, paper and more!

Let the countdown begin!  Come on Friday!!

:)

Birdhouse Birthday - FMS338 and GDP139

Hey there and happy Friday!  It sure is warming up here in Texas and it's only going to get hotter.  Triple digits in the forecast next week, so I'm planning to get busy (and comfy) in my craft room!

For today's card, I wanted to make a fun birthday card for my niece who will be 17 next week.  I'm playing along with the "just a note" theme with the Global Design Project and the sketch challenge with Freshly Made Sketches.  When I saw the new sketch from FMS, I was trying to think of something vertical when I remembered a set from the Occasions Catalog called Flying Home.

Flying Home was on my pre-order back in December.  I love the little birdhouses and just "had" to have this set.. Then life happened and I haven't had the chance to use this set as much as I had hoped.  I think I'll keep it - even if it isn't sticking around.  ;) To make the birdhouses a little longer/taller, I used my Stamparatus.  I was able to cover up the gap with the sentiment.

Cute, right?  The sentiment is from Bird Banter which I thought coordinated well.  I stamped it on a scrap of paper from this card - you can see the tone on tone Coastal Cabana lines which give it a little extra detail.

I colored the houses with a variety of Stampin' Blends.  They are very easy to use and I'm so excited that Stampin' Up! is coming out with even more colors for their Blends collection!

There you have it!  Thanks for stopping by on your Friday!  (Speaking of Friday... did you check out the Fancy Friday hop?? Don't miss it!)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Holly

High Tide Father for Fancy Friday

Hey there! Welcome to another Fancy Friday hop! I'm so glad you're here.  If you came from my dear friend Sue Plote, thanks for continuing on to me!

Today's hop features the True Gentleman suite from Stampin' Up!'s Occasions Catalog:

However... for those of us that unfortunately don't own this great set, we will be sharing our creations that are inspired by the colors or masculine theme.  The Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, Tranquil Tide and Crumb Cake color combo is a good one!

I decided to go nautical with the card.  Maybe it was the "tide" or "navy" throwing subtle hints at me. :)  I chose the High Tide stamp set and paired it with some of my favorite sentiments from the (retiring) Rose Wonder stamp set.

Now the sentiment does say "friend" but I customized the sentiment with the "father" from the (upcoming) Itty Bitty Greetings stamp set.  The Seaside Textured Impressions Embossing Folder seemed like the perfect match for waves.

The DSP is a sneak peek at some really beautiful paper coming out next week too! 

The inside sentiment is also from Rose Wonder.  My dad truly is a blessing to me and many others.  Seemed only fitting!

So there you have it!  We'd love to see you play along with the color combo or True Gentleman suite. Use the hashtag #fancyfriday and let us know!

Next up is my former Aussie Artisan pal Rochelle!  (I adore her and her style so go check her out!)

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Blessings,

Holly

Two for Tuesday with Lilypad Lake

Well hello there!

Remember me?

I know it has been so long since I've blogged and I am sorry for that! (I feel like I'm repeating myself each post.). I promise, I'm going to be back to consistently blogging.  I'm in the works of getting a brand new watermark and logo and I'm very excited about it, so stay tuned!

Today I had some time to sit down and stamp and decided to check out some challenges to help my MOJO come back!  I also wanted to use this lovely set called Lilypad Lake that will be available NEXT FRIDAY!  (Can you believe the new catalog is a little over a week away??)

I chose a color you may have never seen - or at least one you haven't seen in awhile - Coastal Cabana.  Loooooove this color!  Think "light Bermuda Bay".  Very beachy!

This first card I made is from the Freshly Made Sketches sketch from this week.  I guess the challenge ended yesterday, but I decided to go with it anyway.  I really liked the look.

Look at those cute little sailboats!  A little Stampin' Dimensional for some extra detail.

My favorite part is actually this cluster of ribbons.   To make the special Berry Burst ribbon, I took the Berry Burst Metallic Edge Ribbon cutting off the silver edge and fraying the ribbon a bit.

For the second card, I chose the sketch from the Fab Friday Challenge blog.  

I liked the simple look of the sketch.  Sometimes something simple can help someone ease back into stamping!  This challenge is similar to another from last week so I have been looking at it for awhile!

I embossed the lily pads with white emboss powder and colored the images with both Stampin' Write markers and Blends.

I wasn't sure I would ever use the lilypads but I'm glad I gave them a shot.  They work well with the sentiment. 

Thanks so much for checking out my blog today!  Have a wonderful day!

-Holly