Madison Avenue

Hustle & Bustle

So the hustle and bustle of the holidays is winding down and we are all finally relaxing.  We had a very nice Christmas, it was fun, loud, chaotic and happy!  It snowed here most of the day which made for some beautiful scenery and some icy road conditions.  All is well in our house and my boys are enjoying all their new gifts.  I think it is time to take down the decorations and will be tackling that project this weekend. 

Thought I would share another card I made with Papertrey's Heart Prints, Heart Prints Sentiments and Lisa'sLove Songs (only the xo is from her set).  I combined Spring Rain and Berry Sorbet for this one with a little black thrown in for balance.  I like the simplicity of it, Nichole's sentiments from Heart Prints Sentiments are so nice and beautiful that they can stand alone as a focal point. 

 

Here is a close up of the sentiment that was stamped on Linen Vellum paper and adhered with little baby blue brads to the Berry Sorbet Stitched Ribbon. 

 

I am absolutely in love with this set, I think it is my favorite of the year.  Look for lots more to come in the coming weeks as we approach Valentine's Day.  Hope you are all enjoying your holiday weekend!

Merry Christmas to all...

Just wanted to wish all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas, I hope you all are enjoying time with loved ones and celebrating this very special season.  I am blessed to be surrounded by family and friends and look forward to celebrating with all of them.  Thank you for keeping up with my blog and letting me share a little of my craft, myself, and my family with you all.  Here is a last minute card I made the last few days - these will be going to my immediate family tomorrow.

 

I used a combination of Papertrey sets, 2008 Holiday Tag Collection and Silent Night, with really simple stamping using Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado and Spring Moss.  I cut out a small star with my Cuttlebug from red felt and glued it on.  Easy peasy, just what I need at this time of year!  And here is a close up...

 

Thanks for stopping by!  (((Hugs))) to all!

Teacher Card

Wow, I had really intended on posting this week but time got away from me....the snow here  is making my life more hectic.  My car sucks is not good in the snow so we have to rely on the truck to get us everywhere which means lots of carpooling and rearranging of schedules.  Plus Michael had a doctors appointment one day, he had to get 4 shots, poor guy.  And I have been desperately trying to finish some Christmas projects and make yummy Christmas treats! 

So anyhow, thought I would share a quick little teacher card made with the superb Papertrey set, Teacher's Apple.  It is so cute and great for all kinds of cards!  I used the remaining patterned paper I made for the November release, I couldn't throw it out, so I die cut it with the Label's 1 dies from Spellbinders and made a quick little card.  I love the sparkly apple on the bottom, created that with the rock n roll technique and added glitter with my Xyron.  Super cute!

 

I also used the small apple in the Limitless Labels set for the little border on the bottom, it makes a perfect accent.  Here is a close up of the sparkly apple...

 

Supplies (all PTI unless noted):

Stamps:  Teacher's Apple, Polka Dot Basics, Limitless Labels

Ink:  Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides, Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate

Paper:  Vintage Cream, Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides, Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy

Other:  Ocean Tides Twill, Labels 1 Dies (Spellbinders), Tags Die (Spellbinders), Simple Scallop Punch (Martha Stewart Crafts)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are enjoying the holiday season.  Here is a quick pick of my cutie baby just cause...we got a new "fancy" camera for Christmas and are practicing with it.  Not great at it yet but I really like the capabilities it has-this picture is straight out of the camera, unedited. 

December Papertrey Release

This month's Papertrey release is all about a few of my favorite things, hearts, pink, love, and Valentines Day!  Nichole designed a heart set I am absolutely in love with, she read my mind I tell you!  It is perfect and I will use it too much I am sure!  Lisa designed the cutest set with little love song quotes, it is perfect and has so many possibilities!  And finally Candice designed a super cute little set full of cute forest animals, again so fun and full of possibilities.  Even my little guy will be excited to use it.

For Heart Prints, you already saw my treat project, but I made a little card to accompany it with the same color scheme and some of the same elements, I altered one of the Raspberry Fizz papers to create the background....

 

For Love Songs, I made a sweet little card for your sweetheart, will be going to my hubby...color scheme of Spring Moss, Spring Rain, Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate.  I created the patterned paper with different elements from the set and I love it, I might have to reproduce it for more cards!  The striped strip is from the Men of Life patterned paper collection from last month's release.  I love all the little details I added to this one still tried to keep it clean but I couldn't stop adding cute little embellies!

 

Here's a close up of the window element, it is vellum run through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder.  The window was cut with oval nestabilities. 

 

And finally Forest Friends and the accompanying sentiment set.  I decided to create some super simple 3x3 valentines for a child to give to friends.  I tried to make them appropriate for either gender and since I have boys I decided to make sure they were appropriate for Jacob to use at Valentine's day.

 

So there you have it, another fabulous release from Papertrey!  I hope you enjoyed the projects and gain some inspiration from them.  Have a fabulous week, hopefully I will be back with some goodies later in the week.  My baby is sick right now so I am doing lots and lots of rocking and holding. 

Sweets for the Sweet

This month is the wonderful Valentine release at Papertrey and Nichole asked all of the designers to come up with a Valentine treat idea.  I decided to use Lauren's new Lollipop Along template for my packaging, it is so cute and so versatile.  I made it into a little box and did not use the topper so my little pops would be center stage.  I chose to make some "cake pops," invented (I think) by the fabulous Bakerella.  She makes them for all the holidays it seems and they are adorable.  I made mine into heart shapes and even used pink (strawberry) cake.  Check out her blog for lots of cute ideas, they really aren't that hard and I think kids would have a fun time making them with you too, let's them get a little messy and a lot creative!  Anyhow, here is the overview of my finished project first -

 

And for those of you interested in more details...here are the cake pops after I had just formed them - naked cake...

 

Then I melted some Wilton candy melts (dark chocolate), stuck in a lollipop stick (dip them end in chocolate first) and dipped the whole thing (after freezing for about a half an hour), very carefully I might add as they are delicate and actually kind of heavy.  I had a couple that fell off the sticks into the chocolate.

  

After these hardened a bit, I melted some pink candy melts and drizzled it on top.  Kind of tricky to get just the right amount - at least for me, I am so not an expert (or even an amateur) at candy making.

 

Then I placed them in plastic baggies, tied with Dark Chocolate Swiss Dot Ribbon with a little Raspberry Fizz heart tied on where you could write a little message if desired.  I think they look cute and festive.

 

And finally here is a close up of the box, I really like the color combo I picked (Raspberry Fizz, Ripe Avocado, and Dark Chocolate), the new color is gorgeous.  Of course I am a pink girl so any new pink color is great with me.

 

That's it, really not too difficult and the template makes it easy to mass produce these boxes.  It is fabulous to be able to just print, cut, score, and assemble, all ready for decorating.  Be sure to click on all the designers blogs to see what they cooked up this month!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Polka Dot Basics, Heart Prints

Ink:  Raspberry Fizz, Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Sweet Blush

Paper:  SS White, Dark Chocolate

Other:  Raspberry Fizz Saddle Stitched Ribbon, Dark Chocolate Swiss Dot Ribbon, EK Success Heart Punch, Simple Scallop Border Punch (Martha Stewart Crafts)

Christmas Towels

I quickly wanted to share another quick, easy gift idea for the holidays.  I made a bunch of these also for my aunt to give to friends for Christmas.  I used Snowfall, Rustic Branches, and Merry & Bright to create these cute little stamped towels.  Just get a pack of flour sack towels, wash and dry them (no fabric softener), iron them (pain in the you know what part), stamp with Palette inks, then heat set them.  I added a little ribbon to each and a tag to match, most of them were made from the 2008 Holiday Tags Collection.  If you only buy one Christmas set, I recommend this one, versatile, pretty and tons of different styles are included in one set.  Anyhow...here they are:

Snowfall set with Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate, and Aqua Mist

 

Rustic Branches with Ripe Avocado and Pure Poppy inks

 

Merry & Bright with Ripe Avocado and Pure Poppy inks

 

And finally, Merry & Bright with Ocean Tides, Ripe Avocado, and Dark Chocolate inks

 

Hoping these helped inspire you for those last minute gifts for teachers, co-workers, friends, the mail lady, bus driver, etc...

Happy Thursday!!!

Bags and Tags

My aunt asked me to make a bunch of holiday treat bags for her using the Kraft Window Coffee Bags and Frosted Bags from Papertrey.  She really liked the tags I made for the holiday release (see here and here) so I made some similar ones using the 2008 Holiday Tag Collection, Holiday Treats, Merry & Bright, and Borders and Corners Circle.  I just grabbed a bunch of holiday colors and my Marvy punches and went to work, really didn't take too much time at all.  I really like how they turned out, each unique and simple, yet polished.

     

The one with the little wreath is one of my favorites, I made the berries red using Stickles, easy peasy, the hardest part is waiting for it to dry!  I also love creating backgrounds with the connected snowflakes from Merry & Bright, they are so cute and turn out perfect every time. 

    

Don't know if you can see the first picture too well, but I found that I really liked Aqua Mist for the snowflake images.  The other one is Ripe Avocado and Pure Poppy with a little Spring Moss star in the center, so cute.

   

I really like the blue and silver combination, the blue paper is Night Sky Shimmer, lovely stuff.  I matched it up to one of the Palette inks and used that for the sentiment and sponging.  I hope these might give you some inspiration for some quick packaging for your holiday treats!  Hope your week si going good!

6 Months

 

This little baby turned 6 months old on Saturday.  The picture is blurry but it is the only one I got that day of just him.  He is getting so big, not sure how much he weighs cause he doesn't go to the doctor until next week for his 6 month appointment.  He loves to eat, absolutely loves it, screams at you (really he screams) when you are eating and he isn't.  He has worked his way through all those stage 1 baby foods and is a big fan of squash and bananas (well I make both of those myself and he seems to like them better).  I am hoping his appreciation (I am not calling it an obsession yet) of food continues and he is not as picky of an eater as his big brother.  His big brother who had to eat a tablespoon of potatoes, one green bean and two bites of ham to get dessert last night and couldn't do it!  Anyhow, Micheal warms my heart with his smiles and snuggles, I am one lucky momma to have such a sweet baby.  Although he is not sleeping through the night and that is making me crazy (and tired)!  He is almost sitting up but not quite and absolutely loves bouncing and biting on fingers (preferably daddy's).

We had a big weekend of tree cutting, decorating, and visiting Santa, whew am I tired!  So glad I get to go to bed soon, I need some good rest!  Off to hang with my hubby, have a great Monday!

Thanks Nugget Tin

Sorry to be away so long, I guess my readers (are there any readers??) are used to it.  Life gets in the way of posting.  Even right now, my baby is crying cause he is supposed to be taking a nap and apparently needs his mommy to rock him.  He is sure a momma's boy!

Anyhow, a quick little thanks gift I made last week using a Nugget Tin with some of those yummy nugget candies, which I have been eating too many of lately.  They are just so so good, have you tried the Dark Chocolate Truffle ones (with red wrappers) they are to die for...sorry I digress.  Made this one with Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, and Ocean Tides ink using the leaf label from Limitless Labels.  Then matched it up to the leaf image in Text Boxed, I added the sentiment and little dots from the same set.  Stamped the label on the smallest Labels 1 die from Spellbinders.  I also sponged the edges of the label with Spring Moss ink, as well as all the candy wraps.  My favorite part of this project though is all the delicious fibers I used to tie around the box, Ocean Tides Stitched Ribbon, hemp cord, leaf ribbon, and a little embroidery floss. 

 

Here is a closer look at the label, I really think I might incorporate something like it into a card.  I just need to find the time!!!

 

Thank you for stopping by, hope you are having a fabulous Friday!  We are putting up our tree this weekend and getting into the Christmas spirit!