Busy Weekend!!

It has been a crazy busy weekend!! Maybe that is why I am so exhausted today?? I started on Saturday morning heading over to the MFT opening and getting some color tips from a copic class by Colleen Schaan. She is such a sweet lady. She had us create two cards. One is posted on her blog. I haven't taken any pictures of mine created in her class, but will later. It was fun to get some craftiness in. I also am a big fan of MFT stamps and I ended up buying more than planned. I also got some free stamps too!!

After that, I ended up heading down to Ft. Lauderdale to see my sister graduate! I had wanted to visit with a few friends there, but I didn't have the luxury of time. My husband and I got to spend some time with my sister, her husband, and my cute little nephew.

I am so looking forward to this Labor Day weekend. I am hoping to have some time to play in my craft room! Have a great week! hugs!
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A Dinner and Two Cards

Last night for dinner, I made some bouillabaisse, a French seafood stew. My mother's friend and my sister have both made it before. I attempted to make it with a combination of their recipes. Here's the Williams and Sonoma one: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/bouillabaisse-mediterranean-fish-soup.html. I ended up throwing out the mussels. Their smell and insides gross me out!! Here's a picture of it after my hubby stirred it a bit. We did enjoy it, and will make it again... but with no mussels!




This morning, I made a card for the MFTWSC#33. I received the Who's That Girl image from Splitcoaststamper's Wish RAK. It's a great way to try out some images and decide if it's an image to have or not.


Also at Splitcoaststampers, the featured stamper is sweetnsassystamps. This summer, her creations caught my attention. She uses lots of bears in her creations, so I made this one inspired by her.


I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend! I plan to enjoy it!
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Fluttering Butterflies

Today, I had time to create two cards. One this morning that I posted on Splitcoaststampers and one this afternoon for The Pink Elephant Challenge #111. The theme was to use butterflies! I love butterflies. I also used Verve's AUG2011 Week 2 sketch.


It has been a very busy week back at school. I have met my new batch of cute little kindergarteners. My husband has been very supportive, as I have warned him of this time of year. He made an Indian dinner for us on Wednesday. He brought sunflowers home on Thursday. On Friday, he came to my classroom and brought me some bubble tea. Then he moved and rehooked some computers for me. We even went out for a dinner and movie! Now he's off doing some grocery shopping, as I get caught up. (Love you honey!)

Tomorrow will be the first day of school! I am excited about the new year with my new students and new administration. It should be a good year!







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Monday's Polka Dotted Mug

I created this coffee card thinking mainly of Papertrey's Make it Monday #26: Decreasing Apertures . There is a video tutorial at Nichole's blog showing how to use different dies to make a window. I also was inspired by Splitcoaststamper's Inspiration Challenge #296. At the site there are pictures of pink napkins with white polka dots. With Papertrey's Warm Happiness polka dotted mug, Warm Happiness Too sentiment, and Warm Happiness Dies to match, I made something to go with the browns in my cards. This also fits DTGD11leigh_obrien challenge at Splitcoaststampers to use several dies.




Here is a look through the front window into the inside of the card.

I think I will be working on some more DTGD11 challenges today over at Splitcoaststampers. Then later tonight, I will be going with my hubby to an Ethiopian restaurant to meet up with his brother and hopefully my sister and her little family!! Have a wonderful day!
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OTWC #58

I love photo collages, especially ones related to wedding inspirations. Seeing these OTWC collages reminds me of the one I made last year for my wedding. I will have to share that sometime in the future. Kim has another beautiful picture collage for OTWC#58. Here it is:



I was inspired by the blue and coral colors. I used Stampin Up's retired colors: Buckaroo Blue and Groovy Guava as my blue and coral. My layout was inspired by Sweet Sunday's Sketch #128. I was also inspired by three Splitcoaststamper's DTGD challenges: use handmade stitching, piercing, and inking up a cupcake.
Here's my Cupcake Turtle card:



Today is my last official day of summer! Back to work on Monday! I love the beginning of a school year, but will  miss my carefree summers. Have a wonderful weekend!
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The Pink Elephant #110 Challenge

I already posted this at the Splitcoaststampers site, but could not get it to link up for TPE110. This is the sketch:
I loved the samples from the TPE team. Here's my entry inspired from this sketch and their samples. I made mine into an easel card. There is a great tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.

I used the turtle and sentiment from Papertrey's Tiny Treats: Birthday. There are lots of challenges going on at Splitcoaststampers. I am working on incorporating them into my creations. One has to be a fan club member to participate. Click HERE for more information there.


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Cupcake Exchange Party

Last Wednesday evening, I had a cupcake exchange party. It was fun to plan and participate in.These are the cupcake invitations that I sent out to some of my friends. I made these in May before school was out, because I knew I wanted to have a cupcake exchange party during the summer. I finalized them two weeks ago so that they would be sent out a week ahead. I had sent a Facebook invite weeks earlier, and then these to those who could attend. These were basically made similiar to the flower pocket card.



I also made cupcake sugar cookies. Here they are with the sugar sand on top:

Here they are packaged in their individual bags:


In the foyer, on the wall, I used small clothespins and twine to display my pictures. I took a couple pictures down and replaced with cookies. This was my third attempt at making decorated sugar cookies, and I was pleased with myself at how they turned out!


I also made a candy bar on my bookcase in the foyer area. I got pink yogurt covered pretzels and chocolate covered expresso beans at Fresh Market. I go the pink and green truffles from Lindt. I went to Target and got some minty green M&M's. I put these in different glass containers. The girls enjoyed this, especially my friend Amber, who loves Lily Pulitzer.

Underneath the candy bar, were my favor bags and cupcake sugar cookies. I used a die cut at my school for the bag. Then I used my Nestabilities and Cuttlebug to cut out the shapes for the cupcake template. I used Papertrey's Tiny Treats: Birthday and a cupcake dollar stamp from Michaels to make my little circular tags. My friends were impressed with the felt on top of the cupcakes that were on the favor bags.

I also made prize bags for the best presentation and the best tasting cupcakes. Inside the identical bags were identical cupcake necklaces from Bashful Bliss, a cupcake frame, and a cupcake lip gloss. The owl box full of little 3X3 cards were put into a bag with some other cupcake goodies for a scrapbooker/stamper.


After my friends arrived and settled down, we sat down and tasted the cupcakes. I cut the a few cupcakes into quarters for each person to taste. The other cupcakes were left untouched, so that we could each take the different cupcakes home.
 

Now for the delectable cupcakes. I used my new phone and its vintage warm setting to take photos. Love that setting!! I made mochaccino cupcakes that were yummy. I even created my own icing to go with it!




Even though the votes varied for taste, my friend Colleen and I tied for the best tasting cupcakes with 2 votes each. Since I was the hostess, she won the prize. Here are her Oreo Cheesecakes.


Amber won best presentation with her Pink Lemonade cupcakes. Since she had the most votes, she also won the scrapbooker/stamper cupcake goodies.


The other cupcakes we had were Chai Latte, Vanilla (orange colored frosting), Vanilla Vanilla, Chocolate Chip Cannoli, Key Lime, and Mintalicious Brownies. Below is my first photo collage created with Photoshop. Just a few more random pictures from the party.

We had yummy cupcake for sharing and eating for days! If you have an inkling for a cupcake exchange party, I highly recommend hosting one!


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