By the Sea party ensemble {Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking magazine}

Hello friends! The Fourth of July weekend is just about here! We'll be spending the weekend out at the beach, enjoying a view of the ocean and the sand in our toes. It's only a 20 minute trip from our house, so we go there fairly often, but there's still something about the July 4th weekend that makes the summer beach scene extra magical! 

Today I'm sharing this summer party ensemble on the Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking blog. I used Graphic 45's By the Sea collection, and YOU have the chance to win it over on the PC&S blog (so if you haven't been there yet, click on over for a chance! There are more pictures of these projects too!)

As I promised over there, I have more details, and supply lists here in case you'd like to try this yourself.  First up, the banner. I LOVE using my Sizzix Framelits pennant dies to create party decor. It is so easy to create pennants using any paper you choose (or even felt or foam!) There's a scalloped die, and a straight edge die, so I die-cut one of each and layered them. You can see I alternated sizes between small and large. I used a small hole punch on each corner and then I threaded twine through each pennant. (Yes, it's my favorite May Arts burlap string. . . seriously, it matches EVERYTHING. I'm obsessed, which you might already know!) Then I just added some chipboard embellishments, and pinwheels (also a die, which is from The Cat's Pajamas.)

Next up, the drink bottle. This is just a recycled Starbucks Frappaccino bottle. Sometimes I save things, even though I'm not sure why. . . .and this was one of those saves that worked perfectly. A mason jar would have been fabulous too. I jazzed it up with burlap, twine, and chipboard. This would be fun to personalize for each guest, maybe with names or initials too. (You could even let them take it home with them!) 

Next we have the cute little place setting bag. Wouldn't this be fun (and handy) when serving up a BBQ or buffet? Guests can grab a bag and have their napkin and utensils contained in this cute little bag (this one is from Fancy Pants.) Again, I just decorated it up with goodies from the By the Sea collection, a pinwheel die, and twine. 

(And would you like to know a funny secret? The napkin I used for this photo, is a Star Wars napkin with Darth Vader on the other side. It was the only red napkin I had in the house!)

And last but not least, a quick card. . . .because really, how could I NOT make a card? It could be an invitation, or maybe a thank-you card after a fabulous summer soiree. Below, I've linked up the products I've used. If you have any questions, ask away! I'd love to chat with you! And be sure to stop over at the Paper Crafts blog, for a chance to win this paper collection, plus lots of coordinating goodies!  Have a fabulous, safe, and FUN Fourth of July weekend! 

Supplies:

kraft cardstock

Graphic 45 By the Sea 12x12 pad and chipboard shapes

Sizzix Framelits pennants dies(from scrapbook.com) or (from Sizzix.com)

Sizzix Framelits scalloped pennants dies (from scrapbook.com) or (from Sizzix.com)

Pinwheels die from The Cat's Pajamas

May Arts burlap string (from Simon Says Stamp)

Fancy Pants bag

Burlap Ribbon (on bottle) Close To My Heart

do you hear that?

Is it totally bugging anyone else, that once again Christmas seems to have started even EARLIER this year!? The 24-hour Christmas music started up here, on like - November 5th, I think?! What the heck!? Remember when it started the day AFTER Thanksgiving?

Now, don't get me wrong - I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas music.  But I don't want to miss out on FALL FESTIVITIES (anyone remember poor old Turkey Day!) because I am already stressing about Christmas! At any rate, I made myself wait until November 15th.  And now, I have deemed it OFFICIALLY Christmas music season in my household. 

HOORAY!!!!!

(But we made hand print turkeys this weekend, just to make sure Thanksgiving didn't get lost!)

If you are making Christmas cards this year, I hope you've started! It's time to get busy! If you read my post a few days ago, about ORDERING Christmas cards. . .then you KNOW I'm not sending out a zillion homemade cards, but I WILL send out SOME.  

Here are three Christmas cards I've made recently. .  . .

(Unity Stamps, and Bella Blvd patterned paper)

(Discount Cardstock, October Afternoon paper and Wild Card, pinwheel die from The Cat's Pajamas)

(Discount Cardstock, and Close To My Heart stamps)

Alright my friends, that's all I've got for ya today.  All those blog hops (and one more to come, on Friday) have my little blogging self, WORN OUT! It's almost the weekend, so hang in there! Thanks so much for coming by! I seem to have lots of new friends stopping by lately, (probably thanks to all these blog hops) - feel free to say HI! :) 

xoxo

bring the BLING!

I think that Want2Scrap has been one of my favorite sponsors at CPS this year. . . another great example of a company that I might not have purchased from, but WILL be purchasing from in the future, thanks to the Card Positioning Systems blog.  Want2Scrap was a new-to-me company.  They have BLING, BLING, BLING, and a lot of it coordinates with Nestabilities dies.  But I don't HAVE any Nestabilities (yet - but that's a different story!)  so I kind of thought - Ugh, is this going to be a drag to use? But guess what, they are super EASY to use and a lot of fun.  Plus the big sheets of pearls and jewels will last you through MANY a project.  I've used them on just about everything I've created lately, and I think I WILL be restocking shortly!!!

Today I'd like to share two cards featuring the Want2Scrap jewels with you.  This first is based on this week's sketch at CPS.  

 I used Christmas trees from The Cat's Pajamas (you may recognize them from the craft fair Christmas tags I shared a few weeks ago!)  The sentiment, that sweet little bitty "merry" is from The {Stamps} of Life.  The cardstock here (from Discount Cardstock) is called Posh Wagon Red Dungaree.  If you look closely, it has a really nice subtle texture to it, that looks a lot like denim.  So beautiful!

On this second card, I created a nice little row of pearls, along with stamps from Gina K (Tami Mayberry's All Occasion Tags set. . . .HOW much do I love this stamp set? TONS!)  The yellow crepe paper from Discount Cardstock totally adds an added texture and detail to this project that I just LOVE.

Thanks so much for coming by today.  And thank you so much to those who hopped this weekend for Operation Julie's Smile.  I had so much fun reading allllllll of your comments! And finally, with a few hours to spare, I finished the hop myself, last night! Phew! 121 blogs?! That's a LOT!!!!!  Have a terrific week! We are in the midst of some blustery, rainy weather here - and I LOVE it.  Going to drink coffee, and fill a box of junk-I mean treasures - to take to Goodwill today.
xoxo

Ahoy There!

The Cat's Pajamas is our awesome CPS sponsor for the week!  As soon as I saw this sweet little whale, I knew I wanted to paper-piece him, I knew I wanted to see him covered with polka-dots, and I KNEW it was love at first sight!  I used the Neptune Trio of Dotted Swiss cardstock (by Bazzill), from Discount Cardstock for this card.  I just love how my happy little whale turned out! :)  Be sure to visit the Card Positioning Systems blog to see the sketch for this week!!! Play along and you might just win yourself some great goodies from The Cat's Pajamas!!!!

We had our first few days of COOL(ish) weather this past weekend, and it was PERFECTION.  We went to a farm on Saturday, and had THE best time - I'll share a few pictures in my next post!!! I have some cute fall and Halloween ideas to share with you too!!! Watch for it Tuesday or Wednesday! :)

Have a TERRIFIC WEEK!!! Happy October!
xoxo

my heart is spinning. . .for markers!

Remember those Touch Twin markers I told you about last week? The ones I am wishing for? Well. . . .it's not a lot, but I did win TWO of them this past week!  Remember to visit their blog every day for a chance to win!  I actually had a very winning weekend, because I also won a set of baker's twine, in The Twinery blog hop! Pretty exciting! :)
Anyway, back on track - this week's challenge is a color challenge.  I used my dear friend, Angie's markers, and it was really fun! I also used brand new stamps from The Cat's Pajamas  and of course, coordinating cardstock from Discount Cardstock.

yo ho, yo ho!

Arrrrrr. . .another pirate card for ye today.

I used beautiful GCD Studios papers on this one, but worked with basically the same stamps as my CPS card. This pirate set (from The Cat's Pajamas) has a bunch of cute sentiments and pirate themed stamps. I will surely be getting a lot of use out of this set!!! (Finally a FUN set for making some masculine birthday cards!!!)
The second picture, shows the sentiment I added to the bottom corner of the card.

Now that my child has finished his major tantrum, (I did a terrible thing, by pouring the milk in his cereal, before he asked if he could help. He wanted me to DUMP out his cereal and start over. . .I think not. But now I've been paying the consequences!!!) I think I will try to eat some breakfast and get us out the door to run some errands!!! Have a great day!!! Meet me back here for Unity's Hip Hop blog hop tomorrow!!!

XOXOXO