I'm DeLirious over DeLovely!

... well Ok. Maybe not delirious. But I do like this collection quite a bit - it's Delectable, Deluxe, and Delicious! Ok, Ok, I'll stop. But first, I just have to make sure... you DO know Cole Porter, right? He's the one who wrote the song DeLovely. Good song. If you haven't seen the 2004 movie named after the song, with Kevin Kline as Cole Porter, you should really check it out. The soundtrack is amazing. Great crafting music :)

Here are a few more cards I've made with the line.

(Sorry this one is so similar to the one I showed you in my last post!)

I ADORE how this one turned out! I'm not sure why the picture looks so washed out (both pictures really), as it looks awesome in my iPhoto. Oh well. Anyway... I used the DeLovely cardstock stickers sheet for this one - not an item I generally purchase for Cosmo Cricket collections, but this time, on a whim, I actually grabbed it on ebay :) The stripe above the pink paper is made with two border stickers, and a Martha Stewart felt ricrac border between them. The "best friends" label is another sticker... I learned recently you can use a sticker as a dimensional element by dusting cornstarch across the back to remove the stick (thank you Kristina Werner fans!). I was certain I was going to ruin the sticker, but I tried it and it worked brilliantly! I punched holes in the centers of the flowers, threaded the ribbon through, and stuck it on with foam adhesive. Then I added a little bling with Stickles and a My Mind's Eye rhinestone. Awesome!

a card a day?

I saw some cards posted in the 2Peas gallery today that were for a "Card-a-Day Challenge." This got me thinking... I know there's a book A Card A Day , but as I'm still new to the whole community aspect of papercrafting, I come across a lot on message boards, galleries, and blogs that I don't understand. Is there a blog out there that has a daily card challenge? That would be fun! Or was it a short-term challenge on a site or blog? I shall have to do some more googling, but I'm definitely thinking it could even be fun to just challenge myself to make one card per day, no matter whether I feel like it or not. That would be a challenge in several respects, but mostly because I usually only craft a few times a week and I often make 2 or 3 cards in one sitting. Hmm... I wonder what the rules of this card-a-day might be...

OK, I'll come back to that sometime after I've done more research and more thinking. Here are the two cards I made this afternoon...

This card has been in my head for ages and I finally got it made! I actually want to try a second one too, with different papers, but I'm not sure I have enough a's to spell out aloha again! My first project with Cosmo Cricket's DeLovely collection, which I LOVE, but am finding difficult to use.

This one is another card using Pink Paislee's Starlight collection. It is approximately lifted from Erin Terrell Clarkson's beautiful creation, but my version is simpler and more streamlined, partially because I just don't have all those gorgeous do-dads like she used! I had a hard time getting the penants to fit, and consequently the blue button isn't centered, which I sort of can't stand but otherwise I'm pleased with this card!


Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!

three cheers for the red white and blue

I said it before and I'll say it again: I LOVE red, white, and blue! I also love variations on the combo... turquoise, coral, aqua, ivory, maroon, navy...

I snatched up this awesome dress - from LL Bean of all places (find it here in three adorable colors) - for my friend's wedding coming up later this month. Coral, white, navy. So chic!

The only shoes I have that would go with it are silver, which I knew would be fine, but I thought might look a little bit random. And what better way to tie silver into an outfit than with jewelry? :) So I found a cute starfish charm, dug through my huge stash of beads I haven't touched since 1999 (lol) and came up with this:

I was so psyched with how it came out, and I've been considering creating a second etsy store to sell home decor items, jewelry, and girls' hair accessories, so I decided to go for it! Here's my first item... (and please check out Little Olive Designs - named for my cat!)

This one is *actually* red, white, and blue - with that gorgeous clear aqua thrown in for good measure! :) I am LOVING the nautical look this year - it seems to come back every spring/summer so it's definitely a no-fail option. And what could be cuter - and more effortless! - than this adorable necklace with great cropped jeans, a white tee, and a navy cardigan?! I'm partial to this one from J Crew ...

*wink wink* ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!

~ star light ~ star bright ~

I got Pink Paislee's Starlight mini collection as soon as it was available. It's founded on red, white, and blue - one of my favorite color combos even though I'm not terribly patriotic! - with pops of yellow and turquoise, and tons of stars. I've loved it since I first saw it! But it just sat and sat on my shelf because I couldn't figure out what to do with it! I've only seen a couple examples of what others have done with the collection, but I was so impressed with the variety they produced. So I sat down last night with the intention of making some Father's Day cards for my etsy store, and spread all the materials out around me. I started with a dad card, and then decided to see if I could replicate some of the amazing variety I've seen from this collection. Here we go! Thanks for stopping by!

on being brave

This is not something I would normally share with a cyberspace full of strangers, but I've been trying a lot of new things lately so I figured why not.

Not long ago, I mentioned that I was trying Weight Watchers again after giving it a shot for about a month last summer. I'm not doing it perfectly, I'm not obsessing (although it's hard for it not to occupy a lot of your thoughts), and I'm not beating myself up for "falling off the wagon" every once in a while... all I can say is thank goodness for those bonus 35 points each week! :)

Also, I think I've mentioned that I'm not much of a scrapbooker, but I've been having a good time with my little page-a-month 6x6 album. So I thought, by way of a little extra motivation, I'd start a second monthly scrapbook chronicling my attempts at losing weight. I'm making a huge assumption that the photos and numbers will show changes from month to month (or at least every few months!), but even if I fail,  hopefully I'll have had fun making the layouts!

So here it is: Page Number One...

I hate the sideways shot. I really tried hard not to "suck it in" - I never look that fat, even though I am that fat! (Although I have to say that it's not all for vanity's sake... Because of my close to two decades of dance training, I actually have to focus conscious effort on not engaging my core muscles!)

My scrapbooks in the past have pretty much been photo albums built on pretty paper with a few stickers or other embellishments thrown in. But I've been seeing so many scrapbook layouts online that are so impressive. I wanted to try something I've seen a lot of  - I call it "scattered bits of stuff" - and I'm not sure how well I executed it here, but it was fun to give it a shot. I think I may have let things get a little too busy for the size of the page, but I used a lot of elements that I really love. And I adore the look of layered labels - Can't wait to play with that look more!

Father's Day Cards

Father's Day is one month from today!

These cards were inspired by Kristina Werner's May 2010 "A Year in Cards" class for Two Peas in a Bucket. I used Kristina's first card as a sketch and personalized the designs.

Here's what I've got so far...

(If you don't live in the Northeast, those things in the corner are buoys - floaters - used to mark lobster pots in the water.)

P.S. For any musical theater fans out there - Did you know today is Eliza Doolittle Day? May 20th - get it?! I love it! :)

to quote Rachael Ray...

THIS is what's for dinner tonight!

... or, last night actually. But either way... :)

So, spoiler alert: I'm not going to blog about crafting today. I'm going to blog about another love of mine: food; and something I know many people struggle with: maintaining a healthy relationship with food. I've been struggling with my weight since about 2003. Actually, struggling is a bit of a euphemism. More like steadily gaining weight since 2003 (not a great slogan). I've mostly managed to stay healthy, but recently my doctor finally managed to convince me that I need to put a little more effort into dropping a few pounds. So I started Weight Watchers on Wednesday... for the second time (I tried it for about a month last summer). My biggest complaint with the program is that the easiest way to follow it is by eating foods with nutrition labels. And meals that come with nutrition labels are not terribly healthy. So I've been checking cookbooks out of the library and looking at blogs that have recipes with the WW Points (r) value already calculated. I made the first of these recipes last night and it was so yummy! So I thought I'd share...

Moo Shu Chicken Wraps
(adapted from http://ww-recipes.net)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2-3 chicken breasts
8 oz. bagged coleslaw mix
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2 Tablespoons hoisin sauce
4 flour tortillas

Method:
1. Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. (You want to choose a pot that all your chicken breasts will fit in comfortably.) Add raw chicken to boiling water, reduce heat, and allow to simmer until the chicken is opaque in the center. Remove chicken from water and shred with 2 forks. Measure 2 cups of chicken.
2. Heat the vegetable oil  in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add coleslaw mix to skillet and allow to cook until the cabbage becomes slightly tender.
4. Add the chicken to the cabbage and heat through.
5. Add the soy sauce and hoisin, and stir until all of the cabbage and chicken is coated thoroughly.

6. Heat a tortilla in the microwave for 30 seconds. Fill your tortilla with 1/4 of the moo shu mixture, and wrap it up. Yum!

 

Nutritional information (one serving):
WW points: 7
Calories: 304
Total fat: 14.1 g
Cholesterol: 52 mg
Sodium: 634 mg
Total carbs: 22.4 g
Dietary fiber: 2.5 g
Protein: 21.6 g

Whether you're watching your weight or not, you should really try this recipe! It tastes exactly like your favorite Chinese takeout moo shu, but you made it so you know everything that went into it and there are no questionable chemicals! One serving with a side salad is definitely enough, but if you're into slightly larger portions, this could be a meal for two. Give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy!

fruit salad

I've been dying to use these stickers from American Crafts for a long time now, but for some reason I just couldn't figure out what to do with them! I wanted to use them for Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge... they've got the pink, green, blue, and white all right there! ...but I just couldn't figure out how to incorporate the gray without bringing down the whole card. So I took a different route for the challenge, and came up with two different cards using the stickers. Check it out...

Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge

This is my first time participating in one of Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenges! And this is a special challenge too - a "Reader's Choice" Color Inspiration! We all voted on a photo of a color combination we liked, and Kristina translated the winning photo into swatches for the challenge.

And let me say this color challenge thing is not easy to do! Six colors is a lot! I mean, yeah, most of my projects have 6 colors on them (if not more!). But to have all 6 colors prescribed to you by someone else makes it really challenging. In this case, the gray was the hardest part for me. I love the color combo, including the gray, but I wanted to do something really summery and bright, and the gray element didn't really lend itself to that summery feeling. BUT, I'm actually really thrilled with what I did come up with!

Supplies: Stampin' Up cardstocks in Certainly Celery, Cameo Coral, and Pretty in Pink; Studio Calico rub-on (my first time ever using a rub-on - I've never been able to figure out what to do with them!); K&Co./Amy Butler brad; AC Dear Lizzy glitter Thickers (I'm in love with these!); October Afternoon Fly a Kite Collection patterned paper

ETA: Be sure to check out Kristina's blog here and take a look at the other submissions! They're shaping up to be really awesome!

Thanks for stopping by!

let's be honest...

I don't usually over-estimate myself or my abilities in any area of my life. I'm actually more likely to sell myself short, although I'm generally pretty honest with myself. However, the one area in which I cannot seem to be honest with myself is the caliber of my sewing skills. I cannot sew. I can't even sew a line neat enough or straight enough to hem my own pants! I don't have a lot of practice under my belt, but I'm just not patient enough to take on projects that would allow me to gain more experience. And yet I continue to purchase fabrics and patterns, lying to myself far too easily that yes! I will make these someday soon!

So I found myself embarking upon today's cardmaking adventure via a few different influences. First, sewing on cards is so hot these days. I've played around a little recently with hand sewing techniques, and wanted to try some more. Second, Valerie Mangan, whose blog Paper & Cookies I've just recently discovered, posted some cards that she made using the most recent Studio Calico kit and some machine sewing. Third, some of the design team members have been posting on the Studio Calico blog this week actually encouraging us all to scraplift! So I decided, since I already had the same supplies as Valerie, and I've kind of been interested in trying machine sewing, why not go ahead and lift her cards?

So... here's what I came up with...

Sewing in circles is super hard, and you can tell by this photo that I had an especially hard time! But I'm proud of me for trying something new!

I couldn't tell exactly what Valerie had done for her sentiment, but it looked sort of cork-like, and I thought cork would be nice with the color scheme. I didn't have an appropriate stamp that was small enough (plus, I wasn't sure if stamping on cork would even work!) so I pulled the yellow tones out of the patterned papers with the Pink Paislee brad.

When I first saw Valerie's cards on her blog this morning, I immediately remembered that the reverse of the button paper was the same print but in a lovely pine-y, lime-y kelly green color. Wouldn't that be fun, I thought to myself, accented with real buttons as holly berries for a Christmas card? So I took Valerie's second design and put my own, albeit small, spin on it...

I knew I didn't want to mix too many patterns, but the holly leaves weren't standing out enough, so I did some white "faux stitching" around them.

No sewing in circles this time!

So there you have it. Three new things for me today: Machine sewing on paper, directly lifting (as close as I've ever come to CASEing) somebody else's design, and admitting to the world once and for all that I cannot sew!! :)