Saturday, November 8, 2008

Projects, Projects and More...A Really Loooong Post!

I have to admit I have never really made so many things in a span of 2-3 weeks. My niece's 2nd birthday is coming up on November 8th, but she will be having the party on November 9th. My sister and Mom decided to have a big blow-out 2nd birthday for her. At first, I was thinking about gifting my sister some thank you notes made out of the Princess stamps she sent me, but when I found out that they invited over 100 people - then I said I would stick to making thank you notes for my Mom instead since she only wanted 15 of them. I finally finished on Tuesday night, just in time to send it priority on Wednesday to make sure it made to IL by Friday or Saturday.

LITTLE PRINCESS GIFT SET

The first picture is the gift set I made for my niece, Briana. The theme of her birthday party is a princess theme so what not better way to make her some princess gifts. My sister originally asked me to make backpack tags after browsing my gallery on SCS (like the one I made for my son) so that is part of the gift. I also had a one of those bare wood frames that I bought on sale from Hobby Lobby awhile back after the holidays and finally had a reason to alter it. I am also going to make my niece a matching name frame but did not want to send that in the mail because the frame is too big and afraid that the glass might break during transit. So, she will be getting that as part of her Christmas gift when we visit during the holidays.

I made a matching card to go with her gift set. Isn't that dress the cutest thing? I got the template from Mel's (mel stampz) blog. She is so generous in sharing not only her own templates, but others as well. Click here for a link to all of Mels' fabulous dress card samples. Here is the template I used for the dress...very simple.


THANK YOU GIFT SET

The second gift set is for my Mom. She has always been so generous when it comes to sending us packages especially now that we have moved far away. I haven't had the chance to really thank her so I thought of making her this gift set. It is made from my most favorite stamp set of all, Rubber Stamping Fun. This was part of a program (that did not go too well) where many of us stampers were hand picked to be part of their preview program of never released sets. They sent us the stamp set we picked for free and all we had to do was create card samples and upload them to our gallery. We got to pick one stamp set and they had a contest to help name them. I picked preview set #22 which reminded me of the Artfully Asian set by Stampin Up. This set is so versatile. The sentiment on the card reads "Life's greatest happiness is to know we are loved." Unfortunately, this stamp set did not make it on their list of new releases on their website. I had not heard from RSF since the program and heard that many folks on SCS did not get their free stamp set. Fortunately for me, I picked this set and love using it!



I also purchased a jade necklace (which I should have taken a picture of, but I had already nicely placed it in the box) that I ordered from one of the neighborhood kids' school fundraisers - yes, jewelry and not cookies! How odd! The fundraiser had a great selection of jewelry. The necklace already came in a box of its own (which I still kept it in), but I wanted to make something special box to put it in. I've been telling my mom how much stamping and crafting I have been doing so I thought it would show off some of the things I have been doing. I thought the mini pizza box was perfect in size. You can click here for the mini pizza box tutorial...

I also wanted to make her something special that she could write notes on...she is always sending out mail to family and friends. And I have been drooling over those monogram notecards that everyone's been making. I don't own any JustRite monogram stampers so I improvised with some Unity Stamps Formal Alphabet set. I made 12 of these so I wanted the layout to be simple. I just love the aqua blue color (which I was never fond of before).


And, last but not least, I also created a holiday planner. I had been admiring all of those planners on SCS that I decided to make one for my Mom. She normally uses a legal pad to make a list of all of the people she has to buy a gift for and now she has a special place to keep her lists. I also made two pockets she can use to keep reciepts. I created them using the CD holder template found here. It doubled as an actual holder for a CD of pictures that I took this year.

THANK YOU NOTES FOR BRIANA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY



Here are samples of the thank you notes I made for my mom. She wanted to give the people who volunteered to help set-up, run errands and cook food for the party. I had to make 15 of these so, again, I needed to find something simple. I found this card made by Cindy Williams (cwilliams) and cased it...I made her two kinds since I ran out of the brown ribbon, but I think I like the one with the twine.

OFFICE GIFT SET

My sister just started a new job as an administrative assistant. And I had been dying to make another office gift set. I made one for one of my good friends awhile back, but forgot to take a picture of it – bummer! Hope my sister likes my color choice.

I created a matching card to go with the gift set and distressed it to look like I tore off sentiment piece out of a notebook.

I remember when I was an executive assistant (way back when...) that I used a notebook to keep track of To Do's, phonecalls, etc... so I made her a composition notebook with matching jumbo clips and pen. I also created a pocket on the inside front cover for misc items.

She can use the matching clipboard to display pictures of her daughter, Briana, or of her family. Or she can use it as a regular clipboard so I also included a notepad.

I also made her a matching name frame so she can put it up in her cubicle - I would have loved one when I was working full-time!

Well, that is it…told you it was a very looong post and I had lots to share!

LITTLE PRINCESS GIFT SET RECIPE: Paper: MME Magnolia dp, White/Hot Pink cs Inks: Chocolate Chip marker/Bliss Blue/YoYo Yellow Accessories: Clear badge holders from Wal-mart, Diamond stickles, Scribbles 3D Paint Crystal Gel Very Berry Red, Nestabilities, Dress Template, White satin ribbon from Wal-mart, Distress Ink Antique Linen, , Cricut Jasmine cart, Mod Podge, Wood frame from Hobby Lobby, Clear mini decorative accents from M’s

THANK YOU GIFT SET RECIPE: Paper: Paper Pack dp from Hobby Lobby, Provo Craft Holiday Slab, White/ Bliss Blue cs Stamps: Rubber Stamping Fun preview set #22, Unity Stamps Formal Alphabet, Merry Accessories:White satin ribbon, Clear beads, Sticky Tape, RSVP pen, Slit punch for scalloped border on card and mini pizza box, Mini pizza box template White/Hot Pink cs, Teal polkadot grosgrain ribbon Nestabilities, Composition Notebook

THANK YOU NOTES FOR BRIANA’S BIRTHDAY PARTY RECIPE: Paper: Unkown speckled cs, Stamps: MFT Falling for You, SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Inks: Chocolate Chip/Really Rust/ Summer Sun/Old Olive/Only Orange, Twine, Chocolate Brown satin ribbon from Wal-mart, Accessories: Nestabilities (template for round sun)

OFFICE GIFT SET RECIPE: Paper: MME Magnolia dp, White cs, Not Quite Navy Inks: Distress Ink Antique Linen, Creamy Caramel, Bordering Blue, Black sharpie marker Stamps: Autumn Leaves Scribbles Alphabet, Cornish Heritage Farms Lined Paper, Riveting, Delight in Life Accessories: Frame from Wal-mart, Mini clipboard from OfficeMax, Composition notebook, RSVP pen, White grosgrain ribbon, Wide orange grosgrain ribbon, buttons, glue dots, Nestabilities, Mod Podge, Prima flower adhesive back, Jumbo clips, Clear mini decorative accents from M’s, Spiral binding punch, Cuttlebug Script embossing folder