Turning 13!

I am sure we all have some kind of memory of turning 13, becoming a "teenager..." Well, last night was the family party for our friends' daughter, who just turned 13. She is an adorable, sweet, outgoing, fun loving girl. It has long been known that she is also the Princess with 3 very protective older brothers (18, 21, 27), a dad in denial, and many uncles who will definitely be around to remind the boys that she is off limits! The poor girl will never get the chance to date with that lot around!!!

Anyway, Being the typical tween/teenager she is in to music, guitars, dancing and the like. So I had to use that in the wrappings of the gift we gave her.

June is a Hectic Month

June is a crazy month for me. First there are all of the end of the school year activities - report cards and paper work, packing things away for the summer, end of the year celebrations, etc. Then there are the 4 birthdays in our family/friends circle that need to be celebrated. Add to that a high school graduation, our wedding anniversary, and you could say there really is never a dull moment for me this month.

Thankfully, school is over, the graduation ceremony has happened and now we are on to all the celebrations. Today everyone is gathering to officially celebrate the graduation and birthdays. I thought I would share one of the many projects I have been working on for the past week since school got out.

This is a gift for a wonderful lady, Barbara, my friend Jill's Mom. As part of our extended family we love her dearly. All of her children and grandchildren are avid game players. Scrabble is Barbara's specialty. So I used some Timeless Treasures fabrics to make her the following Scrabble set.

It includes a large bag - big enough to carry her Scrabble set, and a few other goodies I put together.


The bag and a notebook to hold her score pad.



Lap sized quilt 46" x  52".

 I made a Lap sized quilt to keep her legs warm for the evening outdoor Scrabble marathons we get into during the summer. 

Gift bag, Card, Quilt, Note Pad, and Bag....

Well, I am off to the party. I can not wait to give it to her. Hope you are all enjoying your summer day.

Gotta Love Those Gift Bags

So, I think I am hooked on making gift bags and matching cards. I almost, notice I said ALMOST, don't care about what is inside just as long as I can come up with a fun outside.

This was for the last of the April birthdays in our "foster family" group of friends. She is a great cook and loves anything kitchen, cooking related. So I made a few aprons for her and found a fun cookbook with lots of yummy pictures. Don't you just love looking at the pictures in a cookbook?

This is just a straight 1/2 apron that is reversible. The other side is the same fabrics in reverse.

Since the gift was kitchen themed I thought I would splash the bag with the same.

This is a 12x16 bag.
Nifty 50's cart:
Background splash:

9.5 in - Motel Phrase, Layer 3 (Bobunny Dots)
            Motel Phrase, Shadow (solid pink card stock)
White gel pen stitching

Bag Elements:
3 in. - Apron (scraps of paper?)
          Oven Mitt
Glossy Accents on the buttons

From My Kitchen cart:
Bag Elements:
4 in. - Oven
          Muffin Tin
          Mixer
          Recipe Card
5 in. - cake
Clear star gel pen highlights and stitching on the muffin tin
White puff paint, and stickles on the cake and cake stand
Nate's ABC's cart:
0.6 and 1.2 in. Letters for "Cookin' up some fun"

Card/Tag:
From My Kitchen:
4 in. - recipe card
        - decorative layer
2.5 in. - saying (can't remember the cart)

Well, I am off to scrapbook for the whole day with some friends, one of which owns a scrapbooking store.

"Happy National Scrapbooking Day!"

Puzzled Gift Bag & Card

Earlier this week I shared a gift bag and card styled after a Scrabble game. Today, I am moving on to another of our favorite passtimes at gatherings, Jigsaw Puzzles. These were fun to make and could be easily adopted to any specific theme.

I started with a few greeting cards sporting pictures that fit the occassion. In this case, a Thomas Kincade painting of the castle at Disneyland, my friend loves his work, and Disneyland. I also picked a second card that was in my stash of old stationary from the 45 anniversary of Disneyland. I measured the front of the cards to determine my next steps.

In my Gypsy, on a new 12 x 12 mat I enlarged the Window Card cut on Don Juan to make the window slightly smaller than the front of the greeting card I chose to cut up. I hid the card outline itself, making just the puzzle pieces that make up the window the size of my card front.

I cut the card front away from the rest of the card and placed it on my mat to match the Gypsy file.

Here is the card artwork after I cut it.

I layered the front of a 8x10 kraft gift bag with coordinating card stock, and added a large sheer, teal ribbon to the last layer before attaching it to the bag. My "puzzle" was partially reassembled with some of the pieces adheared with popdots to give it some texture and dimention.

The saying in the corner was hand written, to try to tie together the idea of the puzzles and a gift she is surprised to get.

The card base is an ivory 5 x 6.5 card by Reflections. To this I added several layers of paper again, along with a sentiment I printed out on scraps of paper.

This morning's Blog Candy is a bit like my birthday...I spend at least part of the day at Disneyland on my day, and I always get a new watch. So, today I am giving away an 8x8 Red CM album, a pack of pages, and CM Primary Paper album kit (printed papers, stickers, and photo mats) AND a Mickey Watch.

All you need to do to be eligible to win, is comment on this post before midnight(pdst) on Saturday, April 16th.

Triple Score Birthday

We have a wonderful group of friends that we love to hang out with. We are now entering the time of year where celebrating seems almost non-stop, a bazzilion birthdays, several anniversaries, and all of the spring/summer holidays, and even a few bbq's "just because." The best part is that the adults are just as silly and fun loving as the kids. Sometimes even worse than the kids. Besides all of the food, we love to play games. Lawn games, board games, card games...you name it we have a great time with it. About sun down a Scrabble Board usually comes out on to a table.

There are some pretty serious players in the group, which usually means a few disagreements as facts are checked...Then there may be a second board for those of us much less likely to take the game seriously. At this game you will find some interesting, if not quite valid words. But if you can make a sentence with the word, and give a definition - it is yours.

The card and bag I share with you has been made for one of our fun loving friends - a serious Scrabbler - for their birthday. (I won't say anymore or they might figure out it is for them)

First, for the card

The card base is 5-1/2 x 5-1/2 inch card stock.

I cut Letter Tiles from Printing 101 Cart:

   1 inch Tiles + shift (brown linen stripe paper -old CM paper pack)

   1 inch Shadow Tile (black card stock)

   Highlight edges with Copic Sketch pen # E71 Champagne

   Emphasis the cut lines on side of tile with an old CM brown pen)

The colored double/triple letter squares were cut from Pack Your Bags Cart

   1.2 inch Beach ball Stamp + shift

The H, Y in Happy and the R in Birth are adhered with pop dots

The bag:

I set some of the letters on a Kraft colored bag and a white bag so that I could chose one.

I chose the white 12" x 16" bag for this gift.

I marked the bag into 1-3/4 inch squares, first in pencil and then in colored pens - I chose to use the bright Close to My Heart "island" color set for the lines. I did not complete all of the lines to give it the illusion that the game board was sliding off the bag.

The letter tiles on this one are cut from Printing 101

   1-1/2 inch Tiles + shift (brown linen stripe paper -old CM paper pack)

   1-1/2 inch Shadow Tile (black card stock)
   Highlight edges with Copic Sketch pen # E71 Champagne
   Emphasis the cut lines on side of tile with an old CM brown pen)





The colored double/triple letter squares were cut from Pack Your Bags Cart
   1.7 inch Beachball Stamp + shift
The black start is a small CM punch.
All of the letter tiles were adhered with pop dots.
Here is one more close up of the letter tiles so that you can see what I did with the pens.

I loved making this gift set, and I can not wait to make another. But in the meantime, I have my first prize to give away.

CM's Disney Vacation Designer Prints (16 sheets); CM's Adventures of Pooh Album Kit (Printed papers, stickers and an idea book.

I will use random.com to pick the winner.Here's what you need to do:

   Leave a comment in this post by Friday, April 15th, at 10 pm (Pacific DS Time).

Shower Gift "Gone Wild"

One of my teaching colleagues/scrapbook buddies is having her first child and today was the shower for her. As always, any chance to hang out with her family is a kick. They are a fun loving bunch.

The happy parents to be are doing a jungle animal theme for the little guy's room. So off to the quilt store to find some fabric! I love any excuse to look for new fabric. I found a great series of fabrics called "Jolly Jungle" by Andover Fabrics. It fit the bill perfectly. I used the adorable panel as the center of the quilt and then borders suggested in the pattern Andover provided. The back of the quilt is the tan flannel in this line.


As always, Stitch has to be right in the middle of any project I am working on.



I also made a pillow case with some of the coordinating fabric. I know a small baby won't need a pillow case but I figured he has it to go with the quilt when he moves on to a "big boy" bed. The animal motif is the cuff at the top. The green fabric is the base of the pillow case.

Can't take a homemade gift in a plain old store bought gift bag. So time to dig through my Cricut handbooks to find some critters for the bag and card. I found a bunch on the Create a Critter cartridge that reminded me of the fabric in the quilt. I tried a few different palm trees but I could not get a size and style that I liked so I stuck to grass and vines.

Recipe for Bag:
   12 x 17 gift bag
Create A Critter:
   Monkey, Vines cut at 4 inches
   Zebra cut at 4.3 inches
   Lion cut at 4.7 inches
   Giraffe cut at 6 inches
Zoobaloo:
    Grass cut at 5 and 1.7 inches
Action Wobbles (I made my own) for Monkeys
Pop Dots for all front grass and animals

I made a card out of a second monkey cut at 4 inches. He is mounted on a homemade action wobble, to a 5.5" square card. I added the Palm Tree with Vine cut from Zoobaloo - on Box setting- cut at 5.5 inches. I trimmed about a 1/4 inch all the way around the box Palm Tree cut, to make it a bit smaller than the card. I added one CAC vine to the top to with pop dots. I used a homemade action wobble on this monkey as well.

I think I am hooked on decorating gift bags like fellow blogger L.B. of Cool Beans by LB. This was soooo much fun. I have another baby gift to put together and wrap this week. Guess we all know where the bag will come from.

I will be back in a few hours to announce the winner of the quilted checkbook cover. Until then, you still have time to comment on the bag and cover, or this post for a chance to win.