To my friend

My friend Gigi moved to Seattle, Washington and I had to send her a card congratulating her on her new job.  I miss her and hope that she likes her card.  It will be hard not being able to get together for dinner like we used to and having our favorite meal -sushi!

Close up of the card front 

Inside of the card

This is a case of a card I saw on Mary Fish's Stampin' Pretty blog.  Check it out here.  

I will miss you my friend and I hope that your new adventure blesses you and your family!!!

Tee hee~

Nicole

For Jerry

My sister called me up devastated that her kitty Jerry had passed away.  Now I had just met this little cat for the first time at the kids birthday party and he was so adorable!  He definitely made an impression me as he ran around like a dog and was right in the mix with the kids playing.  I held him a lot and just gravitated toward him because he was so cute.  He will be missed by our family too!

We are sending a card the following card with kind thoughts about Jerry.

Jerry was an orange tabby and playful.  He would always chase a string.  I am remembering my nephew Ethan running around with some yarn and Jerry chasing him.  They both were so happy and having fun.

Look at this cute punch art kitty.  My upline Niki had a punch art class featuring this cute kitty.  She let me look at her old books and take pictures.  The recipe uses the following punches: 2 step owl punch, wide oval for the body tail, and modern label (punched twice).

'Carry On' hostess stamp set is my favorite right now.  It had just the right message for the card.

May you rest in peace little Jerry~

Nicole

Here's to you

This was another card from my crafty day with my sister.

This is inspired from our recent Stampin' Success magazine for SU demonstrators.  There were a lot of great ideas in that one. I decided to finally use my postage stamp punch and those glimmer brads I have been hoarding.  lol!  I am so loving those new in colors.  I also love the new DSP Floral District.  

Tee hee~

Nicole

7th grader

Here is an MDS of Cailynne's first day of school.  I found the CD of her picture and had to make it a page.

Love this girl and loved her picture!  She was so nervous and overwhelmed on the first day of school.  We were as parents were too!  We got to spend the first day with her.  There was a lot of information, we went through an abbreviated schedule, and met all of the teachers.  Inside the building, the flow of traffic only went in one direction and one of Cay's classes was just one back.  She was not allowed to go against the flow of traffic and had to circle around to get to her next class.  Also, Cay's principal had a booming voice and used to be a morning radio personality.  He runs a tight ship but was encouraging to students too.  Cay got straight A's all year and only one B in pre-Algebra first quarter.  Gary and I were amazed at how hard she worked the whole year, with a little relaxing at the end of the year. lol!

In a couple of months, Cay will start 8th grade and is veteran middle schooler now.

Tee hee~

Nicole

A little visit

Andrea came up for a visit and Anna came over for a visit.  So we had to craft!  Andrea has a good gig going on with selling her cards at holiday's and made a bunch of father's day cards to sell at her husbands work.  Check it out:

How cute is this card?  Andrea did a great job!

Anna has been begging me to get together and craft this next card.  It the beer card from a class I took with my upline Niki.  

Anna made it for her hubby for father's day!  I love it!  The card is fun to make too.

It was a fun night! I would love to keep on crafting....anyone one else want to craft?????

Tee hee~

Nicole

Performances

Both my kids had performances on the same day. I kept calling it a performance and Devan would correct me saying "it is a program mom." It was so fun!  First, we went to Devan's "program" at Snell's preschool.  But it felt a like a performance for sure!  He showed off what he is learning: 3D shapes, geography, math, drama, music and movement, and so much more.  The feelings that were welling inside of me about how he is going on to Kindergarten were overwhelming!  This is an end of an era. I am proud of him! Check out my cute little guy!

Next was Super Cay!  She really is super!  Cailynne showed off at her school in many ways.  She is in an after school program called Bridge.  This has been an amazing program! Not only are teachers from the school available for tutoring, but after homework, they have an enrichment time. Cailynne is involved with the Cheer Squad and creating Murals for the library.

My daughter is awesome!  She tries new things even if she is uncomfortable.  She is way more confident that I was in Junior High School and High School combined!  

I am definitely looking forward to next year!  My daughter will graduate 8th grade and my son will have kindergarten promotion.  It will be a year of milestones for sure!

Tee hee~

Nicole

About time!

So, I surf blogs all the time and came across this helpful hint on storing framelits.  I thought I don't need to do that because I'll just use the sticky paper they already have.  Well if you use the framelits a lot like I have been doing ever since I bought them, they will be a mess!  Here is what my heart framelits looked like:

Really???? How embarrassing, and worrisome that I am going to damage them!  Here is the solution:

A magnet, designer series paper (twitterpated), and cutting it down to size to match my "sticky" paper insert? Clever and easy!  Here it is outside the package...

Now I will have to do it for all the framelits I want to buy in the new catalog!

Tee hee~

Nicole

Cay's gettin' crafty...

...well sort-of!  7th grade is over and Super Cay gave her teachers, librarian, vice principals, and principal a little gift.  Super Cay and I created these little jars of candy as a thanks to some Christa McAuliffe Middle School staff.

A little jar of chocolate with a cute little sentiment?  SWEET!

Tee hee~

Nicole

Graduation favor

Here is Lidia's graduation party favor for her son Angel as promised.  Kindergarten promotion is a big deal!

The bottom is a Reese's candy wrapped in purple tissue paper.  I love how it matches her invitation! Lidia said that she was inspired by the kindergarten treat she made for the class. See her favor here.

Tee hee~

Nicole

Inspiration

A friend of ours was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  She has had quite a roller-coaster of emotions!  She has had surgery and will be having chemotherapy.  I made her a card to show her how  much we care.

Isn't is so pretty?  But I couldn't stop there!  This friend jokes and laughs all the time!  I had to make her laugh.

Even better?  I signed the card from me and my husband, sealed it, and made him give it to her without him knowing what was on the inside!  Tee hee hee!  

I can't take credit for the cute punch art!  That was from a class I took with my upline Niki.  It is one of my favorite classes she offers.  Check out how it is constructed...

It is kind of hard to see.  But one side of the page is the recipe: one 1 3/4 scallop circle (cut in half), two 1 3/8 circle punches, and two word windows construct the punch art.  The finished result is on the second page.  I think the vision was for a bachelorette party.  I never thought that I would be using it for a get well card.  

Anyway, I hope our friend has a quick recovery as well as a lot of laughs along the way!

Tee hee~

Nicole  

Birthday Banners

My niece Olivia and nephew Gavin just had an awesome birthday party this last weekend!  My sister is a teacher and is up to her ears in end of school commitments from  her children and students!  On top of it all, she threw an amazing party for both of her children and it was fun.  Check out the banners and cake:

I made Gavin's banner and it had to be Lego themed.  Gavin lovesLego Ninjago so I went to the lego website and printed out posters of the characters.  I used Stampin' Up! paper because it matched the colors so great and the paper is so durable, perfect for a banner.

Check out this awesome banner my sister made.  Punch art Sesame characters-love it!  She is the queen of banners for sure!  Here is a close up of a part of the banner:

Andrea used stickers and retired SU ribbon.  Sesame street characters just make me smile :-).  Andrea's mother-in-law Phyllis Enns made the cakes and ice cream.  They were a hit!  Olivia's cake was cute with those candy Elmo's.  I love how creative she was with Gavin's cake.  That little guy can water ski, and he is good!  I mean jumping and doing little tricks. She added a framed photo by the cake, which was a great touch.

Lego Ninjago minifig's water skiing??? Cool!!! My nephew couldn't take his eyes off the cake.

People definitely had seconds on that good home made vanilla ice cream with home made chocolate syrup!

Andrea made this MDS a while ago and it was a perfect centerpiece on the food table.  What a fun day with family and friends!

Tee hee~

Nicole

Happiness...

...is some craftin' time with a friend!  This is the second card that I promised to show you from my thank you to Charlette for all her hard work and promotion to Senior Supervisor with Stampin' Up!  This one is inspired from the March 2012 Stampin' Success magazine.  I used some new stuff like the apothecary framelit and the new in color paper and ink!

Congratulations again Charlette! I am so proud of you and look forward to many more crafty times together!

Tee hee~

Nicole

Happy Birthday Cousins!

It's Gavin and Olivia's birthday party today and my sister combined them because their birthdays are so close.  Olivia is having a Sesame Street and Gavin is having a Lego party.  Olivia loves everything big bird and Gavin loves anything Lego.  They will have a bouncy house with water so that all of their friends can play together.  Which is good, because it gets hot in the Fresno, CA area.

Check out the cute invite my sister made with MDS.

I love this invite!  Stay tuned for the banners that we made for the party!

Tee hee~

Nicole

Angry birds

My friend Leona is so crafty!  She is getting ready for summer day camp, and my kids can't wait!  She is an awesome camp director and is so excited about the projects, games, and field trips she is doing with the kids.  Check out one of the projects:



How cute is this???? Pom-poms, googly eyes, and paper?



You can make your very own angry birds game!  I love it!

Tee hee~

Nicole

Just for you

I had to let Charlette know how much I appreciate her recent promotion to Senior Supervisor for Stampin' Up!  We met at Panera under the guise of me needing to borrow a big shot die from her for a project.  Instead we crafted together!

This project was from Stampin' Success our demonstrator magazine that we just got and the same one that mentions Charlette's promotion.  Stampin' Success is why I love to check my mail! lol!  

Here is a close up with the butterfly.  I used our Everything Eleanor stamp set that will be available in the new stampin up catalog.  Do you see the middle of the butterfly?  Stampin up has showed us a cool intruction page in the Stampin' Success magazine on how to make paper beads and I had to try it!  

Here is the card that was inside the butterfly pocket with a special message for Charlette.

What is better than getting a card thanking you for all your hard work?  A kit to share with  your friends!  I gave Charlette the ingrediants for the project for 4 of her friends.  How fun, right?  

Here is Charlette with her finished project!  We had fun crafting and catching up!!!

Stay tuned for another card that we made together.  

Tee hee~

Nicole