Hello Spring!

Hi!

Is spring here yet? :) I love spring and often joke with my hubs that I should hibernate all winter until the longer, warmer days of spring entice me to wake! :)

Doodlebug's Hello Spring collection is perfect for spring projects like this card. Flowers, bright colors and birds...it has spring written all over it! And guess what? Hello Spring is 25% off at Two Peas in a Bucket! Just click on the collection name above to take you there.

Yep, spring is just around the corner! Have you noticed the increase of bird chirping in the mornings? It's their time of year too! ;)

Thank You

Hello!

It's a beautiful, sunny morning here in North Carolina! It looks like we have another glorious fall day ahead of us. How about you?

I've got a special crafty project I'll be working on today! I can't give you any details yet....soon! It's right up your paper crafting alley! :)

For now, how about a thank you card share?

These pretty pastel papers and die cuts are from Doodlebug Design's Hello Spring collection.

I've created texture with layers, stitching and by lifting up these butterfly wings. My trick to keeping them 'in flight' is to add a little foam mounting tape underneath.

Ah....these spring flowers are so pretty!

Have you had the chance to try Doodles Card Stock Stickers? They're another one of my favorite products. I love the font and how easy they are to apply.

It's such a pleasure to sit down and create, isn't it? What have you created lately? A scrapbook page? New recipe? A decor project? Just the other day I learned a new crochet technique called the 'basket weave stitch' that I'm using to make a scarf.

I found a great YouTube video that was very easy to follow. If you would like to see that and my other crochet pins, click here.

Have a lovely and creative day!

Happy Mail

T.G.I.F!

Have you heard about the Happy Mail project from Stacey Jillian and Doodlebug Design?

"Starting Sept. 1 2012, I Stacy Julian, declare that I will make and send 365 handmade cards with handwritten notes. Now I do not want to do this alone and I know with your enthusiastic support, we can do this. Join me in a pay-it-forward Happy Mail movement where people rediscover the joy of sending and receiving handwritten communication (with a stamp)."

What a great idea, don't you think? When I was asked if I'd like to participate I jumped at the chance!

I created this 'Hello Spring' Doodlebug 'Happy Mail' card for my blogger friend, Ruth, who always leaves sweet comments that make my day. Ruth also thinks of me often and sends me e-mails with links to things she knows I'm interested in. Thanks Ruth! I hope you enjoy your Happy Mail!

To learn more about Julian's Happy Mail project and to see some of the cards that have been sent out this week, click here. Make sure you check out all the Happy Mail posts this week for prizes and challenges.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Birthday

Hello! How was your Fourth of July? I hope you enjoyed every bit of it!

Recently I bought the new Papertrey Ink pennants die and broke it in making this birthday card.

There's lots of Doodlebug Design goodies here. I used their Hello Spring collection, Mini Jewels and Doodle Twine.

The sentiment stamp is from the You Said It stamp set from Doodlebug and Hampton Arts.

The wood 'dowels' are actually bamboo skewers. I cut the size down so that they would fit on a A2 size card.

Well, today is a bit of an exciting day because this afternoon we go to Christopher's brand new middle school to meet his new teachers, pick up his gym uniform and take one last tour. He starts on Monday and so far he doesn't seem very nervous.

Thanks for stopping in. I hope you have a great day! Seems a little strange to have one day off in the middle of the week and then back to work again the next day, doesn't it? At least the weekend is just around the corner!

Kathy :)

Hello

How many of you like die cuts? I'm talking about the thin metal variety that are made by companies like Spellbinders, Papertrey Ink and My Favorite Things. I can't get enough these wafer thin pieces of metal and the other day I thought of another use for the Spellbinders nesting dies! Woot!

You can use them to make fun patterns on your paper! And you can use those patterns for stitching!

 I used three of the Spellbinders nesting circles to create this circular pattern. Then I simply pierced around the lines with an awl. After the holes were pierced, I erased my pencil marks and began stitching! It's that easy!

Imagine the possibile patterns you can create with all the different Spellbinders shapes?!?!

The patterned paper, stickers, button and yummy lavendar twine are all from the'Hello Spring' collection from Doodlebug Design....one of my favorite lines right now. I just love the color combination, birds, butterflies and buttons! Right up my crafty alley!

I hope you like this idea and have fun with it. Let me know if you make something, I would love seeing your creation!

Now, how about a winner for yesterday's Crochet Flowers giveaway? Congratulations Connie! I have e-mailed you for your mailing address.

I hope you can pop in for a visit tomorrow because I have another fun way to use tools that we already have in our scrap rooms. And I have some exciting news that I can't share until then! :)

Have a terrific day!

Kathy :)

A Gift for Mom

With Mother's Day coming up this weekend, Doodlebug Design is celebrating mom by asking their design team members to makea a Create-A-Card greeting and gift set. Since I'm a mom who treasures handmade gifts, I 'm pretty excited about this project!

For my card, I picked the Square Baroque style Create-A-Card and added lots of fun goodies from the new Hello Spring collection. FYI, individual Create-A-Cards are 50% off at Two Peas in a bucket...just sayin' ;)

I love the flowers stickers in the Hello Spring line! They're so colorful and glittery! To give them texture, I topped them with Mini Pearls and used pop dots for the center flower.

For the gift portion of my project I created this hanging decor piece made with a combination of felt, canvas and paper.

It's so easy to create something that will brighten mom's everyday with all the colorful and fun Doodlebug accents!

I used die cut tags and bird house stickers and accented them with brads and more Mini Pearls.

A project is not complete without a little baker's twine, right? Doodle Twine comes in so many bright and yummy colors! A girl's got to have choices, right? ;)

I hope you enjoy your Mother's Day! I will be spending mine with my two favorite people in the world! They really now how to treat a mom and will probably make breakfast for me and bring me flowers.

Kathy :)

Recycled & Chocolate Cake

Here we are, the middle of the week, closing in on the weekend. Did you know it's National Scrapbook Day this weekend? Yep, on Saturday. Lots of scrapbook blogs and manufacturer's are planning special crops and giveaways! I know Doodlebug and Bella Blvd. are so go check out their websites for information. I hope to be able to do a bit of crafty playing too.

Back to the present...I have a crafty share for you today. Doodlebug challenged some of their design team members to make a project out of something we would throw away, recycle or send packing to the Goodwill.

I came up with these colorful shower favors using Doodlebug's new Hello Spring collection. Can you tell what recycled item I used to make them? As you can see I cut some felt with a Spellbinders flower shaped die and attached those felt pieces to some Sizzix die cut tags. I layered each felt flower with a Spellbinders circle die cut and adorable little bird stickers.

Details include baker's twine, flower brads, gems and mini wood clothespins.

Have you figured out what I made these favors with? If you guessed toilet paper rolls you are right! I got the idea from Pinterest.

These are so cute and fun, aren't they? I love the a la natural design of this one. These were made by Becky Shander who also creates unique jewelry.

Speaking of Pinterest, the gooey chocolate cake I made for Christopher's birthday was a Pinterest find. It's called Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake. The recipe is from Williams-Sonoma via Lick the Bowl Good.

This, my friends, is about a five pound cake! There are two packages of chocolate chips and one cup of baking cocoa in this cake! The recipe calls for five eggs, 1 1/2 cups of butter and 2 1/2 cups of brown sugar! There's also an entire tub of sour cream and a half cup of heavy whipping cream. This cake is pure sin! Look at all that chocolate ganache oozing down the sides!

Here's a picture from the Lick the Bowl Good blog...her single slice picture is better than mine. You can really see how dense it is! I wish you could stop by for a slice! We have a ton of cake to eat!!!

Thanks for dropping in! Have a great day!

Kathy :)

Springtime

Yesterday I posted a colorful spring-like card in hopes that it would bring spring back our way and it worked for the most part. It was sunny and pretty out, but just a little nippy. So, I'm going to post another and see if it'll help raise the temperatures just a bit. ;)

This card may look a little familiar because I created one a few weeks ago using the letters from this Silhouette cut. I saved the negative portion thinking it would work for another project.

This lovely chevron paper is from the new Bella Blvd. Sunshine & Happiness collection.

And these adorable chipboard accents are from the Spring Flings & Easter Things line. That little pink button is a new Bella Blvd. accent from their Button Market collection. This style is called Pink Flowers...pretty straight forward and easy to remember! ;)

Just in case you missed it...here's the other card I made with the die cut sentiment. For this one I used the new Hello Spring collection from Doodlebug.

If spring took a leave of absence where you live, I hope my card shares will help spread a little shunshine until it returns.

Have a lovely day!

Kathy :)

Hello Spring

Has anyone seen spring? It's been cold and unseasonable around here for the past few days. I think the month of March was warmer on average than this month. Just when we started opening up the windows and wearing fewer layers, we are having to pile them back on. Maybe a happy springtime card share will help bring spring back? ;)

The 'Hello Spring' collection from Doodlebug Design is perfect for springtime projects, don't you think? It's loaded with lots of color, flowers and fluttering butterflies.

I created this little flag with a die from My Favorite Things and topped it with Simply Sweet rub-ons from Doodlebug.

I love texture so I used this sticker tree to cover up the printed one on this Cute Cuts die. To adhere it to the card, I used adhesive foam tape from 3M.

The flowers are also stickers with adhesive foam tape underneath. A little bit of Doodle Twine wrapped around the Create a Card base finishes it off.

I hope you enjoyed my card and that you are enjoying warm spring weather.

Thanks for stopping in!

Kathy :)

Celebrate

Have you had enough Doodlebug Design projects? I hope not because I have another one for you today and tomorrow! ;)

I had this idea to use a sentiment card tucked it into a little glassine bag. Thought it might look kind of of cool? What do you think? I think I like it...it's growing on me.

Because I adore little flags so much...I made these using a new set of four flag shaped dies. I can tell I'm going to be using these a lot!

Most of the papers and goodies I created this card with are from the new Hello Spring line. The green polka dot paper is from the new Snips & Snails collection...it was a left over scrap that matched perfectly so I put it to good use.

So that's my share for the day and I'm sticking to it! ;)

Tomorrow's project uses a different Doodlebug line...a really sweet one called Sugar & Spice.

We made it to Wednesday already...just a couple more days until another glorious weekend! Thanks for stopping in and have a good one!

Kathy :)

Thank You

I was on a crafty roll yesterday and it felt so good! I created four projects and liked all of them! That doesn't always happen! You know what else I did? I made banana bread! Yesterday was a pretty darn good and productive day for a Monday! :) I hope today is too!

This card is one of the crafty items I made yesterday.

I used Doodlebug's new Hello Spring collection. It's so adorable, colorful and fun to play with!

I'm a big fan of birds and this little guy with his lovely blue bird abode is too cute, don't you think?

I just thought of the perfect sentiment for the inside, "You're so very tweet!" ;)

Thanks for stoppin' by! Hope you have a wonderfully productive day!

Kathy :)