Super adorable mini books

Good morning friends! I wanted to show you the mini books I just finished for my two nieces. My brother and sister in law adopted our dear Kate almost exactly 8 years ago. It took them about 2 years from start to finish because they adopted her from China, she was almost 1 when she finally became part of our family. Now this past Christmas they began the process to adopt another daughter, Morgan. She is 11 and from a town local to where they all live. I wanted a special way to welcome Morgan to the family and celebrate the deep friendship she and Kate have already begun. I guess they are inseparable and so silly!

 So these are the two different covers to the books. I made the books identical except for the tags on the cover and throughout them. Most of the pattern paper was from Cosmo Cricket Mini Deck called DeLovely. I got two of these mini decks and I adore them! The paper was just great for cutting with. The solids were some left overs from a Basic Grey Urban Prairie stack I had and my usual Core'dinations paper I always have on hand. For the girl's names I took some iridescent white paper I had from Hobby Lobby and went to town on it with my alcohol inks. I just love how they turned out, they are so much prettier in person! I used Gypsy Font to weld their names together, it such a great font for welding! The green paper was punched with a Martha Stewart punch around the page set.

 Forever title on this page is from Gypsy Wanderings and embellished with my stickles and a rhinestone of course! The daisy border is from Paper Doll Dress Up. I know you can't tell in this picture but I completely covered this border with white glitter and then added I-Rock jewels to the center of each flower. Crocheted flower was from a stash I've had for years. The center is a basic brad that I glittered. Throughout the books I added double sided blank tags for the girls to write on.

 This set of pages is because both girls love music, especially playing the piano and keyboard. Music notes are from Gypsy Wanderings. Again I glittered parts of the notes so they would really stand out.

 These pages are in honor of Kate and her chickens. She adores them and they are her pets. Apparently she sits and visits with them quite a bit and now Morgan has joined in on that fun too!

 I made the word sweet using Alphalicious and glittered the S just for fun. I think the little chick turned out so sweet, couldn't you just hug her? She's from Create A Critter. Her wings are glittered and her beak and legs were cut with the Core'dinations glittered cardstock-that stuff is so fantastic and easy to cut! Of course Chickie's eyes are more rhinestones.

 This set I decided to just make glittery and girly. Ribbon is some I picked up from Walmart, it is so pretty! Of course I added rhinestones to the ribbon and picture mats. I also stickled the edges of the paper flowers for some extra sparkle. One can never have enough sparkle I say!

 Kate and Morgan both love horses so this is in honor of that love. What young girls wouldn't want a pink sparkle pony? I stickled the mane, tail and hooves of the horse and glittered her bandanna. This horse is from Create A Critter, isn't she FAB?! All the cuts and embellishments in these books are strategically pop dotted so the girls can attach their pictures with out having to remove anything.

 And finally, the back cover...so exciting isn't it?! This was also the first project I made using my new Cinch. It worked like a dream and I am so excited to have a different way to bind my fun little projects now.

I hope you all have a very blessed day!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with special people you love!

Thank you Karen at the Graphics Fairy for this adorable print!

Here are the Valentine's I made for my family...

This was for my mom, the inside says "Love You Sew Much" The scalloped heart is from Gypsy Wanderings, the sewing machine is from Nifty Fifties and the sentiment on the inside was made using the Gypsy Font.  I embossed the sewing machine just to make it stand out a bit more and the thread spool is glittered with Martha Stewart glitter. Of course there is lots of purple bling on the front too.  Any guess what mom's favorite color is???

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This was the card I made for my daughter who loves high heels. The ornate frame is from Sentimentals, shoe is from Gypsy Wanderings and again I used the Gypsy Font to weld the word fabulous and the I Love You sentiment on the inside of this card.

The border on this mat was made using my Martha Stewart around the page punch (first time I've ever gotten it to work out!!!!)

This is the one I made my son. I knew he wouldn't want anything cutsie so I came up with this. Bomb is from Indy Art, I think the jagged border is from Gypsy Wanderings and I welded the sentiment with the font from Robotz.

Recipe Card, Bags, and Tags Oh My!

Hi again! I've been very busy with my Love Bug and Chloe for the last few days, they are loving all the attention they're getting!

First, here is a recipe card I made yesterday. It was for a challenge about favorite holiday recipes. Well the reining champ here at our house has been these yummy little cookies officially known as Raspberry Pinwheels, but Becky renamed them a few years ago to be now called "Annabells." My mom always made them at Christmas time. Last year my mom made some while she was visiting and Mike fell in love with them again, I ended up making another huge batch of them just for him. Anyhow, they are a huge favorite here so I thought I would make a special recipe card to hold this beloved cookie.

 The card base was cut with From My Kitchen, using this cool double sided paper. Apron was from Nifty Fifties, the cherries were omitted from the pockets and I added holly from the top of the Christmas Pudding cut in Winter Frolic. Annabells was cut with Gypsy font and welded on Chloe.

 The back of the card is the recipe. I printed this out on my printer and just cut it to size.

On to another project...a couple weeks ago I made Susan's two youngest daughters matching dresses for their American Girl dolls (it's been too long since I've made these, I miss it so much!) Well of course I couldn't just wrap the dresses like a normal person, I HAD to make little shopping bags for them. It was quite a challenge making the bags large enough. Even with 12 x 24 paper, the bags have so many odd size pieces. I finally figured out how to rotate the bags on Chloe enough to get a good size bag. 

 This is Allie's bag, I decided to cut off the handles and use double sided satin ribbon for the handles, more like a little boutique bag. I just love the little kids on Winter Frolic so I just had to make the girls and put them on their bags. Bags were cut with Tags, Bags, Boxes and More.

This is  Deanna's bag. When I first saw this cut it screamed Deanna to me. I have been waiting for an excuse to make this one for her. ( I realized while making these bags, I have now created three versions of these two sweet girls in just the past year, crazy! Spring, Summer, and Winter.)

I made cute tags for the other side of these bags, each girl has her name on it and it is tied on with some pink ribbon. Their names were done with the Gypsy Font once again, and the tags are from Gypsy Wanderings.

Have a blessed day!!!!!

Sympathy Card and Exciting News

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been MIA for a couple of weeks. It's been buisy around here.
Here is a card I just made for my Uncle's wife, he just passed away this past Saturday. We all knew it was going to happen very soon, but it still is very hard for her right now. He was my mom's older brother.

I made this card using my new Gypsy I won a few weeks back. I am so in love with her, she's named Cloey. I used a layered decorative element from Gypsy Wanderings for the front of the card. The Peace was from Cindy Loo. I pop dotted the inner layers to give the front of the card a little dimension and I also used my Cuttlebug to add texture to the mat on the front. The sentiment was one I found online and it really seemed to fit this situation. We are all happy Uncle Tim is no longer battling cancer and is in Heaven where he is at peace. I printed this off on my computer with a wonderful font I found the other day.

In other news, I am almost done with my Spencer word book. I feel like I've been working on this book forever, but I really wanted to take my time with this project and not rush it. I first starting making the book as a memorial of Spencer because he had a terminal brain tumor that was growing again. Well we just found out the other day all the growth on his original tumor has gone away! No treatment of any kind this time! It is a divine miracle and we are all beside ourselves with excitement!!! He still has his original tumor, but the growth is gone! Hopefully soon I can post pictures of his book, I can't wait to give it to his mom!

Hope you all have a blessed day!