Imagine

Hello!  I bet you all thought I fell off the face of the earth!  Nope, just took a mini vacation last weekend to surprise my friend for her 50th birhtday!  I get really jet lagged anytime I fly and the fact that we didn't get much sleep the whole weekend didn't help that fact.  I'm all caught up on my sleep and I didn't have to work today, so I headed into my crafty space and made this card for Tiddly Inks current challenge.  The theme is Any Favorite Tiddly Inks.  I have a lot of favorite Tiddly Inks images but I absolutely love Sweet Dreams Wryn so that's the image I chose for my card.

I colored the image using a combo of Copics and Prismacolor pencils.  The card stock I used is Recollections Black and Bazzil's  Blue Swiss Dots.  The designer papers I used are MME Indie Chic (Saffron Birds Batik), Trinity Paper Surf & Swim (Lei) and the paper studio (Black & White).  

Other challenges I've entered this card:

Inspire Me Fridays-Anything Goes

2 Sisters Challenge Blog-Anything Goes

Crazy 4 Challenges-Card/Project For A Teacher

Paper Crafting Journey-Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin Challenges-Book & Text
Scrap Creations-Anything Goes

Until next time, have a great day and thanks for stopping by!  TTFN

Stamping Hugs,

Becky

First day of school survival kit for teachers

It's that time of year again! When parents and kids are getting geared for the kids to head back to school. I know I'm ready to get back in the swing of things.

We did our "dry runs" yesterday with the busses just to make sure we knew exactly where to pick up our little darlings and to work out any kinks there might be during that process. I'm only with the children for a the short ride from home to school and back again, but it's very tiring work. We are up really early every morning. I get to go home between routes and relax, but the teachers are with the students all day long.

That set my mind to thinking. What would be a good first day back to school gift that I could give to my kids' teachers that's inexpensive?! That's when I thought of this. It's super simple, low cost and I think it conveys the message that I appreciate what they do.

There's a cup of delicious Starbucks coffee and a bag of yummy breakfast sugar cookies. A nice little adrenaline rush for the mid morning fade.

To make the drink carrier, I used two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of kraft. Scoring in on both of the long sides at 2 3/4 inches. Then turning it and scoring at 2 3/4 and at 5 1/2. I then added a 1 inch glue tab on both sides of those scored lines. See picture below.

Once I had all my lines scored and made all my cuts I glued it together at the glue tabs. After assembling both , I then glued them back to back to form a drink carrier. I punched the handle using a rounded tag punch, punching from one side and then the other, being sure to line up my already cut edges with the punch. I then set about adding my embellishments to decorate it.

I wanted the band around it to look like a chalk board so I added a two inch band of black card stock and attached a yellow corrugated scalloped border along the top and bottom. The writing on it was done with a white out pen. I added some apples along the top border to give it a little more punch of color.

I also made a cute little card to go along with it and added a sentiment to the heat protective sleeve.

All images and sentiments used in this project are from The Cutting Cafe's All About School digi stamp set. It's an awesome new set featuring 38 images!

Total cost of this project including coffee and cookies is about $ 6.00! Not too bad!

It's been fun sharing this project with you! I hope you like it and give it a try for yourself!

Have a great day! TTFN

Hugs, Becky

Monday at the Cafe and a bit more.

Warning, this is a lengthy post so if you want to you can skip all the small talk and scroll down for today's Monday At The Cafe.

I'm finally getting back in the swing of things and fingers crossed all my postings will now be on schedule.

This weekend was the fabulous North Texas Swap and I had so much fun. I'm still smiling and admiring all the fun cards the ladies had for me to make. I wanted to share some pics of a few of the ladies I had the good fortune to hang out with.
My friend Sandy who flies in for this event every year. She always has amazing designs but better than that, she is a wonderful person and I look forward to seeing her every year.
My dear friend Suzy and our fearless leader for this year's swap. She put together an amazing get together and was so calm and collected the whole time. Suzy girl, you rock!

I finally got a picture with the one and only Jen Del Muro. She's been at every swap for the last three years and I always enjoy spending time with her. She is so sweet and uber talented to boot. I just hope some of her stamping genius has rubbed off on me.

My fabulous table mates. Me, Libby, Christy and Susan. We spent the whole day together and had the greatest time. I especially loved the sound effects coming from the other side of the table. (Susan, you know what I'm talking about) You ladies are the best!

This is my friend Sharon, myself and Libby. Sharon is the person responsible for getting me to my first NTS three years ago and I just love her to pieces. She's a wonderful person and so talented. I'm glad I got to see her again.

This was the door prize that I took to exchange. The votive is actually a wine glass with a paper shade that I made to match my card.

Look for lots Cat's Pajamas cards in the future because I was the lucky recipient of the door prize they donated to the swap. There were three sets of Clearly Swanky stamps, ribbon, buttons, 3-d frames and flowers from Petaloo and a new border punch. I would have posted a picture but I tore into it as soon as I got it home and was ashamed to show my debauchery:)

Now to the business at hand. Today's Monday At The Cafe.

One of the ladies (I believe it was JT-SCS name) at the swap brought these cute little treat holder for cookies and I loved mine so much, I thought it would be perfect to showcase one of the newly released sets at The Cutting Cafe.

Major cuteness going on here. This is from Regina's Thank Ewe set and you get the background and four sheep images. This is one of the small images. It was the perfect size. I colored her just around the edges using my gray Copic marker. I'm gonna be busy making several of these to hand out to the teachers on Friday.

If you think this is cute you should check out the Little Ladybug, Cutie Pie and Sweet Heart set. So many possibilities!

Well, I think I've dragged this on long enough. Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by my little piece of blogland. I'm outta here. TTFN

Hugs, Becky

Monday At The Cafe # 4 Teacher Thanks

Whew! What a weekend! I hope all the moms out there had a fantastic Mother's Day. You certainly deserve it.


The school year is winding down very quickly now so it's the perfect time to start working on those Thank You cards and gifts and The Cutting Cafe has some terrific new sets that are perfect for the occasion.


The card I made for today features the new Teacher 123 ABC background. I just changed the color to green. I also added the apple from Fruit Greetings to come up with this card that is sure to please any teacher.

I colored the apple with my Copics and cut it out and popped it up on dimentions. The word panel was printed on white card stock and then cut using my Cricut and my new Graphically Speaking cart. I added a little Glossy Accents over the "thanks teacher" to emphasize it. Add a scalloped border, some yummy ribbon and a bow and "Voila" it is finished. I love this color combo, don't you?

Be sure to stop by The Cutting Cafe to check out all the latest releases. They're fabulous!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!! TTFN

Hugs, Becky

Wow! Do we ever need another computer in this house. I mean, come on, it's 1:47 A.M. and I am just now able to get on the computer. DD #2 had a project due tomorrow and she just found out today that she had done the whole thing wrong and had to do it all over again. Sandwiched in between, her brother and sister had to do homework too! I did manage to get my oldest daughters grad announcements, stuffed and ready to go while I was waiting. I am taking them with me in the morning so I have some busy work to do while my mom gets her Pet Scan.

I was busy most of the day with an order for a friend. She wanted some gifts for her daughters dance teachers. I made these cool TY card sets with glittered pens. I totally cased these , but I can't remember who it was. If you are the creator of this lovely design, please let me know so that I can give credit where credit is due. I also made these cute frames! I love the ballet one. Notice the letter "l" is wearing a tutu!

Well, it's really late and if I go to bed now, I will get about 4 hours sleep. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the new Sketches By Tamara. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by. TTFN!