Festival July 17th

Another Banner! My friend Patti's siblings are having a Festival at their new restaurant and asked me to make another banner! The man in the photo is my production manager - Gary my hubby!
We lay out all the letters to make sure our math was correct and we didn't cut them too big.

You have to cut all the large letters individually, but the bottom letters I was able to do in sections. We then go around and with a pencil and ruler mark where each section or large letter will sit. It's hard to guess when you are hold 2ft of vinyl in the air and eyeing up where to placing.

Here's the finished banner! If you are in the Waukesha area and are hungry on the 17th - stop in - I"ll be there!

July SOTM - Blog Hop!

We are jumping again! Check out all the blogs and see the neat things you can do with this month's stamp set - Happy Forever D1423 - A cute Hedge Hog!

You should be coming from Beth's blog - but if you are starting here, just keep clicking thru and you will do a complete circle.

Ok, so you don't see the cute critter? Well, I'm hiding him. I used our new Clear Cards Z1309 (scalloped Circle Card) and made it look like "Blue Skies". The words are from Over the Rainbow stamp set D1426. The sun is a big cheater (discontinued) August Word Puzzle - had to use it, didn't know it was sooo cute and the smiley face could be removed!!!
I stamped the yellow sun first, then I inked the outline
without the smiley face in Orange ink and rocked it in the Holiday Red ink
to give it 2 colors. I turned the stamp a little and off set the lines.
Here's the inside! The sun was hiding the little guy! That's what I love about these clear cards, you can see thru with somethings and hide other objects
There's a hidden "joke". Hope no-one gets mad at me!

"Life is Good" came from the Treetops Stamp Set C1368.

I used foam squares to make the clouds stand out.

I stamped the little guy in Stazon Ink onto the card,

then onto the Splendor B&T Paper (it's brown flecks on it)

The cloud paper is also from the Splendor Level 2 Kit.

I used cardstock for the balloons and cut them out.

Everything is glued to the front except for the cloud paper,

that's glued onto the back of the card.

Ok, head over to Angela Tutton's blog and keep checking this great card set.

Thanks for looking please leave comments!

I'm Bad - Cleaning up the Mess - Tip

OOPS - I've got a few stamps that I have been forgetting to put away.

Currently, I've been in a cleaning mode, organizing and putting everything away! My counters in my craft office are almost completely cleaned off! If you've seen my office in the past you wouldn't believe that last statement, but it's true!
I have a book that I keep all my stamps in. So that I don't have to search for an image this is what I do. I have them in Microsoft Excel, I can sort by name, number, contents. I also cut out the picture of the stamp and have it behind the list. I have them grouped by color on the package.

Here's a page with the stamp photos on it.

So instead of searching thru the stamps, I look thru the book for the images I want.

These 4 stamps I can't find a home for.

Got any ideas as to which stamp set they belong to?

Email if you do!

Close Up of My Princess

My niece loved to take close ups of Jeanie when she was born.
I stamped her name in sculpting foam (discontinued product)
and the ink stayed on the foam. It looks like Scrabble pieces.

Here's a close up of one of the letters. The foam was light weight.

I took paper flowers and added Bigger Brads in the center.

Thanks for looking!

5 Year Anniversary!

Nope, It's not my wedding anniversary -

but my 5th Year with Close To My Heart!

They sent me a Sterling Silver Charm with the company logo!

I've waited all year for this! Here's to another 5 years!

$8 @ a Rummage Sale

Thursday mornings me and the hubby like to take in a few rummage sales if I'm not working. The hubby came across this and asked me what I thought.
It says Portable Lighting Studio - We asked the lady selling it and she used it to photograph things she was selling on eBay. I've been hating how dark my photos turn out for my blog so I told Gary (hubby) to ask her to take less - It was $10 - we got it for $8!

She said you use your own lights - it had lights in the back!

I don't think she knew what she had. She said she got it as a gift!

When you set it up it looks like this! There are two mini lights and a mini camera tripod. The card I made yesterday is in the box. I set it up on the floor, but I could see this out on a table all the time! Love the little blue screen - look at yesterday's card to see NO SHADOWS from my hands in the picture!

These little lites fold up and fit in the back - and they are bright! Below is a picture of the legs going back into the base of the lite.

The tripod - it folds up flat too. I think it's worth $8 - don't you? We Googled it and found them going for $45 used.

Tulip, Black & Buttercup Challenge!

I decided to try and do a CTMH Challenge

that is setup on the Heart to Heart Blog.

This week is 3 colors

You can also use White or Colonial White. So this is the card that I came up with:

I stamped lemons in Buttercup on Daisy White cardstock, I stamped Stawberries and made the stems and leaves black. The stamp set is new this year and it's called You're Sweet. I couldn't wait to use it.

The strawberries are raised with foam squares. I felt it needed a little more bling so I added Bitty Sparkles to each of the white spots on the strawberries - that took some time but I think it sparkles perfectly.

Thanks for looking!

Buckle Up!

Jeanie in her Lil Tikes Car. She looks soo darn cute in her tennies and socks. She never went anywhere without her pacifiers - she was really content with them. There is 4 tags in the pocket that are peeking out above. They describe what Jeanie is doing. I'm going to cut a slit into the page protector so they can be pulled out without having to reach into the protector.
She isn't strong enough to push the car around the sidewalk, so she gets in, shuts the door, turns the key, steering wheel, gets out check the gas tank and then repeats it all again.

This stamp set was great - retired, but I love the signs. I forget what I ran over the yellow paper to get the tire tracks - I think I took one of her toy cars to get them! The signs are raised up with foam squares. I did this layout a few years ago and just found them in the middle of organizing my office.

The Water Park 2008

Finally! I finished these layouts! I've been working on and off on this 4 page layout for over a year. I keep putting it off, filing it away, but now I finished it! A day at the free water park in Germantown.
Jeanie loved it, once she got used to running thru. Her cousin had to hold her hand thru it the first few times, but by the middle of the day, she was dragging him thru! The lettering I did on the Cricut and ran them thru the Xyron.

She loved putting her foot over the water that was

shooting up out of the ground. Look how she passed out afterwards.

I put Liquid Glass on the water drops and

the water splashes - it really gave it a wet 3D look.

Here's another water splash with Liquid Glass outlining it.

Look at her hand as she studies her toes.

What a great day she had!

Thanks for looking!

Mom & Dad's Cars

My vinyl lettering has extended to my family. Mom asked me to do Twilighter for her back car window - guess what movies she loves!??

Now, my Dad's convertible we put Statutory Rake - it sounds bad, but it's a play on words - in the world of wheels it means barely legal height for the rear end of the car (or so I'm told) Dad has a wild lift kit (I'm not sure if that's what you call it) but the car can go up and down with big shocks, the front and back as well as side to side can be raised and lowered - it's really crazy. He put one on each side of the wheels. I have some vinyl on my sister's Mini Cooper too - that I'll post next! I still need to come up with something for my car......

Cricut Classes

There are new classes on my calendar for Cricut Classes - West Bend on a Saturday. Some Appleton, Green Bay and Oshkosh locations. Check them out!

Click Mary's Calendar to go there.

Thanks for looking - email me if you are interested.

I'm working on a hands on class for the Cricut too - feedback/ideas would be great!

Baby Shower - Diaper Wreath!

Yes, you read that correctly. Again, my good friend Patti & I were in need of a great gift for another good friend's Daughter-in-lawS showers! Double Shower party! So I came up with the Diaper Wreath (after doing a little Googling!) The first one is done with plastic diapers. I wrapped them around a wire floral wreath and tied them with curling ribbon - all she has to do is cut the ribbon and she can use the diapers. We filled it with little bottles of baby products, booties, spoons, a few rattles, Q-tips, and a big present in the middle.

This one is done with organic diapers that don't stand up very well. I had to tie them together and put cardboard inside the diapers to give them a spine. Same items decorate this one and another present in the center. The cards are homemade too!

Here are the ladies! Lindsey (mommy to be) Patti, ME and Aggie (the other mommy to be!)

Good thing I didn't do the Diaper Cake because Lindsey made one for Aggie!

Lindsey did a great job on her cake! Love the colors!

They took the wreaths that the restaurant had in the windows down and put ours up on both sides of the food table! It couldn't have been better unless we planned it!!

Order Up!

I've been working with my Cricut, but posting been on the back burner.

I'll have to get caught up here!

My very good friend Patti has several siblings that went in together and created a coffee shop/ice cream parlor/candy store/sandwich shop - it's very cool and located in an old remodeled Victorian home! We went for the "soft" opening where they practice on friends and family They were having a little hard time finding the right guests for their orders so I went home that night and created these number cards for they can hand them out for the orders.

I laminated them so that they will last awhile. I also sponged the edges with Chocolate Ink to antique it. This is how tight I was able to get the numbers on to 2 sheets!

The cards are around 3 x4 inches big.

I ran the numbers thru my Xyron sticker maker. Made the gluing super fast and easy.
They loved them!!!

Paper Flower

I was going to make a pretty flower to put on a card, but it turned out WAY too big for a card.

It's made with squares that are folded and then trimmed to make the petals. I bet I could do this easier with a Cricut! But I love the curled petals and sponging.

Let me know what you think!