G45 and Lawn Fawn-the perfect pair!

Supplies used:G45 papers,Lawn Fawn stamps,Unity stamp(postcard),PTI label die,MS border punch and border sticker,SU! kraft cs,Primas,Tim Holtz distress ink and ep,Copics,Quickutz Eliza,Bazzill cs,doily and ribbon Hobby Lobby.

So here it is 3 weeks after our beach vacation at the in-laws and I'm just now sending off a little thank you card...better late than never, right?

I had a lot of fun with this! I bought a couple Graphic45 On the Boardwalk 8x8 pads to make mini-albums of our reunion for the family and thought I'd start out using it on this little card. It just so happens Lawn Fawn's new release this month (Swimsuit Season) features fun vintage swimsuits that were perfect for this! I love the style of their stamps. There's a little quirky fun vibe to them that just makes me happy!

Even with 2 of those 8x8 pads, I had to be sparing with these gorgeous papers since my mini-albums are going to use nearly every inch of them. I got a little inventive and used the back cover of one of the pads for the card front (the striped paper). Nothing's going to waste with these! Graphic45 is a new endeavor for me. I've always loved their papers and been in awe of those who know what to do with them, so I started studying the G45 gallery and their ning site. If you're a G45 lover or a lover of all things vintage, you HAVE to go check it out HERE! I'm planning on becoming a member and hopefully uploading this card soon.

I always write these ridiculously long blog posts so I'm sure I've lost most of you by now, but I wanted to share a few more details about the card. The flower is a bunch of paper Primas I've had laying around for years and I recently ran across THIS tutorial on breathing new life into them. Mine doesn't look nearly as good as hers, but it sure made those Primas look better than they did! I used Tim Holtz distress embossing powders on the postcard image. Not sure yet whether I like them or not. Let's just say they're 'different'. And--I got them really cheap on sale. Probably a good thing.

I've got a few pics from the vaca to share. I've got them all printed out now and I'm just about ready to start the minis. I'm so excited!

My in-laws beach house



The canal in their backyard



My crazy and totally fun sister-in-law Annie(Bloody Mary virgin no longer!)



My cutie-patootie kiddo



Me and my father-in-law



Bethany Beach,DE



My hottie hubby



Time to wrap this up. But first, I'll be MIA again for the next week while hubby and I take our son on a crazy thrill-seeking mini-vaca to the mountains. What else do you do with a 17 yr old kid?? I'm pretty sure that between whitewater rafting, ziplines, and bungee-jumping I'm gonna be pretty much done with thrills for awhile.

Enjoy your week!

Shopping for babies is SO fun!!

Supplies used:SU! brass template,stamp,BG papers,Michaels ribbon,KI Memories Sheer Delights,PTI felt,canvas,Spellbinders labels and scalloped square,Bazzill cs,DMC floss,Martha Stewart border punch,Copic marker.

Well, not fun enough that I want one or anything. My 'baby' will be a senior in high school this year and the only babies we better have in this house in the future are grandbabies! (and that better be a good long while!!) That's probably why I enjoy shopping for them so much though--I can hand over all that cuteness with no diaper changes or late-night feedings attached;)

So one of hubby's coworkers just had a little baby girl and if there's one thing I haven't had enough of in my life it's shopping for BABY GIRLS!!! Sadly, the stores had a really disgustingly sparse selection of cute baby girl clothes. Boy clothes cuteness was EVERYWHERE but I guess marketers think parents of baby girls want to dress them in drab colors like tans and army olive drab greens. I'm not kidding. This is what I saw this past weekend in 3 baby stores.Yuck. Leave it to the hubster though to score this adorable set of onesies and this little PINK sleeper on the clearance rack of all places!! Now I wasn't looking to go cheap or anything, but hey--who am I to argue with all that cuteness for under $10??



Of course, the best part about giving baby gifts is making the card and packaging! For the card I took a page straight from PTI's Nicole Heady on her post here. Just scroll down a little to find the felt ducky card. I loved the way she used felt to create comfy snuggly softness. I chose to use some canvas behind the little bear. And speaking of bears--he was created using a really old SU! brass template that I hunted and hunted for a few years back and bought from an ebay seller in Singapore. I don't normally buy from overseas sellers so that tells you how BAD I wanted that! He's been put to good use!




I traced him with a Copic E57 marker on SEI velvet paper. He's fuzzy and has that watercolored and drawn-by-a-child look about him. Do you recognize the papers? Probably not because you don't immediately think 'baby' when you think of BG's Capella line. I think they worked beautifully here and goes to show that thinking outside the box can yield great results! I finished the card off with a little $ ribbon from Michael's ( I really wish I would've picked up several spools of this since it's long gone and I LOVE it) and a scalloped edge of a KI Memories Sheer Delights sheet (another thing I really wish I would've bought more of and now it's discontinued).



I added some hand-stitching to the bag using the Tim Holtz ruler to punch the holes in an alternating pattern and some DMC floss. I wanted a thicker look to the stitching so I used a full 6 strand piece of floss and stitched for a good half-hour on this instead of whipping out the sewing machine. Crazy? Maybe. But hubby delivered the gift at the office in Baltimore today and he said the "ooohs and ahhhhs" were outta control! It's those little details, I tell you.

Hope you're finding time this week to do something crafty! I'm off to work on a beachy thank you card for my in-laws using some C.U.T.E. new Lawn Fawn stamps. Hope to share it soon!!