Check out this fun blog (pssst -- there are goodies!)...

My lovely friend Sonia at Scraps4fun has returned to the blogging world recently and is hosting a giveaway with some really fun summer goodies to celebrate!  You would love Sonia's blog -- gorgeous cards and scrapbook pages!  Check it out!

Pretty happy cards :)

Hello, folks!   It's been a heck of a spring -- baby showers, church projects, school projects, work projects, a wedding, and even a kid who suddenly needed her tonsils out -- and one of the things that I couldn't squeeze in was posting on my blog.  Phew!  But I do have a bunch of fun projects to show you, so hopefully I'll be able to get them posted soon.

I want to start out with the last few months' of cards I've done for the marvelous Apron Stings Designs All-Year Cheer card kit club.  These first cards are from the March kit:

Don't you just love a little pinwheel?  I especially love to  make them with double-sided paper --  it's so much cuter!

And these are from April:

The kits always come with great embellishments that make things so much easier -- this lovely card took me a grand total of five minutes.  I just cut the card base and the grey scalloped-patterned paper, then stuck the frame over the top.  Added the frame stickers and the butterfly stickers, and I was done.  Yay!

This one is for my hubby, to celebrate a trip we're going on this summer.  I used the fabulous map paper  as a base and added the red brads in all the places we're going.

And here is the latest batch from May:

I did the background of this one with cute stamps from Maya Road and ties from  the Cricut Mini Monsters cartridge.   Festive but still masculine, right? :)

Love these little kraft envelopes -- perfect for a gift card.  The cuts on this one are from the  New Arrival cartridge.

Now I just need someone to get married!

I used this pretty scalloped crepe paper trim from Maya Road for this cute summer card, pleating it as  I went along.  Turned out so cute and summery!

Love the bookshelf paper from Basic Grey -- perfect for a teacher appreciation card.

This one's a little mini-tag that would be perfect for a new neighbor.

Each kit has so many fun embellishments and really great papers, and Lori (the owner) makes a great newsletter every month with instructions for all the example cards.  Check out the kit club for all the info!

My etsy shop just got a lot more fun...

... because I am finally taking the leap and selling peg dolls!  I'll be selling custom families like the ones I've shown here and here, and I've also created some fun "other" sets to list.

Up first: "The Hobbit" character collection, in honor of the upcoming movie -- Bilbo, Gollum, Gandalf, Thorin Oakenshield, Legolas (don't freak out -- I know he's not in the book, but they're putting him in the movie and I wanted another tall character!), and Smaug the dragon.

You can see closeups of each character on my new shop FB page!

Next, the knight and the princess.  My little Eliza LOVES these and plays with them for hours.  Sometimes the knight saves the princess, and sometimes the princess saves the knight.  But someone is always in danger.  I'm planning on adding a dragon to this set as well (in case she gets tired of having them be in danger from dinosaurs, snakes, and giant puppies).

And I really love this sweet little set: Faith, Hope, and Charity.  I think these would make such a happy little present for someone.

I have lots of other ideas for peg doll collections -- cupcake toppers, dolls for various hobbies, Hunger Games and maybe even Downton Abbey, because I'm obsessed.  (Not sure about that one -- that's a LOT of characters.  Any other Downton Abbey fans out there who think it would be awesome?)

I'm also going to start adding digital stamps created with my doodling, so watch out for that coming soon.

And if you'd like to keep up on all of this AND find out about a giveaway that I will be doing very soon, I'd love for you to come "like" the new Facebook page I've just set up for the shop.  I promise not to totally overwhelm your news feed. :)

Thanks for all your continued support!

More fun cards from Apron Strings Designs!

Hello again!  I'm happy to share my cards from the February All-Year Cheer card kit over from Apron Strings Designs!  I had so much fun working some beautiful papers and accents -- I hope you enjoy the finished product!

This card is from an adorable monster collection from Jillibean Soup:

 These two fun little boy cards are from the October Afternoon "Rocket Age" collection -- LOVE the retro graphics and colors!

These last three are from a collection by Studio Calico -- absolutely beautiful!

That little kraft pocket is perfect for a gift card!

So go check out Apron Strings!  This month's kit is all sold out, but you're not too late to get in on next month!

The truth about Crafty Moms...

I don't know what these are called or how they got started, but I have been seeing them all over FB and Pinterest the past few days.  So of course I had to make one for us crafty moms!

Anyone else with me on this one?

A Creative Baby Shower

My sweet friend Shauna had a baby a couple of months ago, and another friend of ours and I teamed up to throw her a baby shower.  I just love baby showers, especially for little girlies!  I also love it when the decor from a baby shower can live on as decor in the new baby's room!  So before going to town on decorations for the shower, I consulted with Shauna about the colors of her new nursery and knew that she was using purple and baby blue, so away we went!

The big tissue paper pom-poms are the same ones that are everywhere these days -- I'm partial to this Martha Steward tutorial, if you aren't familiar with them yet.  I made the light blue orbs with regular white chinese party lanterns, which I covered with blue crepe paper.  I gave it a ruffled effect by hot gluing every few inches and folding and tucking as I went along.  I would add a dab of hot glue, fold the paper, and press the fold into the hot glue.  I'm sorry if that's not very clear -- I had all these pictures for you for a tutorial and they apparently never made it off my camera and have disappeared.  But it's pretty simple to do and not even too time-consuming -- I'd say each lantern took about a half-hour or so.

I also added these crepe paper rosettes, glued back to back on fishing line, and book page garlands saved from my Grandpa's 80th birthday, to give a pretty chandelier look over the table.

But the creative part of the shower had everything to do with the activity we chose.  Shauna is very artistic and creative, and we wanted to do something fun and different for her shower.  We decided that instead of traditional baby shower games, we'd get wood blocks and have everyone paint a block for the baby to play with.  I just covered my kitchen table with the kids' art paper (off the big IKEA roll), then put out paints and brushes and the blocks, in apothecary jars because that just makes everything fancier. The activity was a hit at the shower, and the blocks turned out delightful!

There's just something about a baby shower that gives you permission to be as girly and frilly as you could wish, isn't there?  Love it.  And I'm just starting to plan a shower for my little sister in April, and I can't wait to show you what we do for that one!

Oh, and just one last thing.  Our friend Sarah made this absolutely adorable diaper cake to go along with the shower.  Isn't it so sweet?  I know she makes them to sell as well, so if you're interested in contacting her just give me a holler!

Darth Vader Pinata

I totally cannot take credit for this creation, but I thought it was too cool to not release onto the WWW. :) My sister Emily threw a very fun Lego Star Wars party for her son a few weeks ago, and was inspired by my Dr. Doofenshmirtz pinata last month to create a Darth Vader pinata.  She used the same paper grocery bag + crepe paper technique (you can find a link to it on my that post), and then found a tutorial here for how to draw Darth Vader.

I think the addition of this awesome cape might be my favorite part.

And of course, what would a Darth Vader pinata be without a giant light saber whacking stick?

Here it is in action, after already having taken quite the beating.  It was a huge hit at the party. (Pun totally intended.)

I was so proud of Em's creativity with this guy -- what an awesome pinata!