embroidery hoop flower

i had embroidery hoops sitting around for a while and i finally got around to making something with them. i stamped a flower image from hero arts on the fabric and started stitching away.
took less than an hour and that was with interruptions catering to a 5 year old ("can i have a snack, can you change my batteries on this toy, can i have a drink, can you sew up the ripped leg on my stuffed animal?")

all finished! i'll be making more!

question...... how do you hang these things??!! :)

i'm due to have a bloggie give away/RAK so when i reach 100 followers, i'll do one! thanks to all who has followed me without my asking. it means a lot to have supportive feedback & your comments! i know i blog sporactically & i appreciate you checking in now & then on me! :)

happy mother's day

here is a card i made for brandon's 1st grade teacher. it is teacher appreciation week here and we picked her up a gift card at target. such a pretty gift card! i decided to include it in the front of the card.
teachers are wonderful! i mean, i can hardly stand my own 2 on days.....imagine a roomful of 30+ 6-7 year olds that AREN'T hers! and she comes back day after day to teach! bless all the teachers out there.
i also made some card sets to share on a later post. too tired and i'm on day 3 of a killer sore throat. i know i need to drink more water but makes it hard when you can't even swallow! any tried and true remedies for soothing a sore throat out there that you can share? i got this most likely from brandon. he was out 2 days from school this week, and skipped his swim lesson.....sharing cooties in our house!happy mother's day to everybody! i'm behind in making mother's day cards as the one above is my 1st one! my intentions are good but my body is tired :)

we MUST be doing something right

i found this note inside the bag i bring to my sitter's house the other day. brandon, my 6 year old, wrote this. he didn't even tell me about it...i found it. and it was touching to read it. he has such a caring nature. when he saw me watching th news and saw the damage the earthquake did to japan, he wanted to help. and i mean, he wanted to HELP as in flying to japan to help clean up. please click onto the pic if you cannot read his words. ahhhh, sweet isn't he? don't mind that he didn't even spell his own name right.....it's his message he wanted to get across. :) i asked him later in the day when i picked him up from school about how he wanted to help. he asked if i could help him help japan. so i told him we could ask friends & family for spare change to donate. so, some of my coworkers donated some money [thanks]. we have a good start for a nice donation.
makes me feel good that we are raising him right........a couple of cards to share. love using vintage music sheets---hard to part with the buttons (i'm such a hoarder of buttons).

a simple, one dimensional birthday card....easy to send.

TFL! have a great weekend. be on the lookout for birthday blog candy coming up soon! i just have to take a pic of the goodies.

bloom

hello and TGIF! did i mention i FINALLY got my laptop back from the geek squad at best buys? it was a little over 3 WEEKS!! never again are we taking our stuff there to have fixed or repaired. their lack of customer service, not calling us to tell us what was going on and never answering their phones did us in. not to mention how much we had to pay! bad experience for us with them. BUT, i am happy to have my laptop back. anyways....................

made an accordion flower for the 1st time. i thought these were easy but not so much! you really have to get it 'just right' and to stay flat.


i never got to share my pictures from SF from when we went at the end of august. i was throwing my sister's & BIL's baby shower but a week before the shower, my BIL's father passed away. we postponed the shower but i still wanted to go to see my pregnant sister and my family. plus it was going to be our last trip before school started up. i cannot wait to meet my new niece!!

a glimpse of brybry's suitcase. makes me smile just looking at this =)
we went to a kids museum and coit tower (the boys were running around burning off energy).

we played tourist with the boys. we also went to lombard street but didn't get very good pictures!

thanks for stopping by!

happy spring--happy earth day

just wanted to share something brandon wrote (all on his own) back in march in school. notice how he just says that my mom likes me instead of love! haha

happy earth day....a day late. my earth friendly element in the card above is the grass. it's made from a coffee cup sleeve, cut and fringed, then inked.

mother's day is coming up. what are you all planning on giving to your mom or to the moms in your life? it's always so hard to figure out what to give. i started making my cards earlier this year! the one above is layered 4x. the ones below were fast & easy to make. stamp, cut, stickled, adhere and stapled.

edited: trying something new in blogger to make my pictures bigger. it worked but also cut it off some on the side. i am too lazy to fix them.

love my tapes

yay! today i am the first featured fan on the Love My Tapes blog!! i recently won some of their double sided adhesive on their blog and i tried it out immediately. LOVED the results! the above card, i used it to adhere everything (except that 'i love my teacher' sticker) including the ribbon. just a little strip is all i needed to hold the ribbon in place on the backside of the top note. (supplies: love my tapes, top note, DCWV, offray, american crafts, sakura, chipboard-unknown)this card above, all is adhered by the double sided adhesive including that handmade flower in the corner. a quickie on how to make that: punch out or cut a circle to your desired size. then i applied the double sided adhesive tape runner to cover the circle. cut out thin strips of paper and just fold and twist. lastly, start circling the twisted strip around the circle pressing down to the adhesive to form your flower. easy right? (supplies: love my tapes, recollections, K&Co., prima, CB, vintage trim, american crafts, brads, manilla tag, CB, crochet string, chipboard-unknown)

it also holds chipboard well. here is my ribbon flower stem. i just ran the tape runner down the rik rac. did it without stretching the ribbon. (supplies: love my tapes, CB, ric rak, studio 18, chipboard-unknown)

here is a repeat of this card that was in the previous post again. i wanted to mention that using the tape runner down the ribbon did not distort it at all. other adhesive tape runners that i've used in the past would always stretch out or warp the ribbon making it look crooked. glue dots are fast and easy but that would show through. (love my tapes, hero arts, imaginisce, american crafts, ribbon, chipboard-unknown)

thanks so much for looking today! be sure to check in on the Love My Tapes blog for more projects and products!

i am always looking for tried & true supplies.....what are your favorites? leave me a comment and i will randomly pick a winner by next wednesday [3/3], midnight to win an assortment of some crafty stash of mine. i have waaaay too much stuff and a lot of it hasn't seen the light of day since purchasing!

tweetie pie

not liking this new format on blogger. i may revert to the old version in my next post. has anyone tried it out yet? any tips? driving me nuts that my words are all over the place.

 just a few quick cards.

brandon went on his 1st field trip a week ago to a farm. all the kids were so excited to ride the school bus!when he got let out that day, his teacher looked TIRED!! i can't imagine! bless all the teachers in the world!

brandon's teacher is the one in the red. the afternoon teacher is in the black. the valentine's i made for his classmates. very plain & not eloborate at all. inside the bag was a valentine decorated cookie and candy.

the kids all decorated these pink bakery boxes to put all their valentine goodies in. very cute!

garden pics

we visited quail botanical gardens one weekend. so beautiful there. had a nice, leisurely walk with the boys. just sharing [a ton of] pics!bryan, with his snack cup in hand, looking for garden lizards.taking a break.brandon trying to get a closer look at the garden lizards.eddie jokingly told brandon that this plant comes alive and grabs you if you've been naughty. everytime we walked by one of these plants there, brandon took a cautious step back!bananas anyone?i believe these were called dinner plate figs.looking at the tall bamboo.can you see the turtle?at the children's garden. fun day! we'll be visiting again soon when the tree house is all finished! thanks for looking!