Saturday, August 31, 2013

Cupcake Saturday!

I can't believe it's already the last day of August! Where has this summer gone?! As the summer's last Cupcake Saturday, we have an ice cream treat inspired cupcake. These are root beer float cupcakes.
The cake is root beer flavored, with extract put into our regular cake mix instead of vanilla. Some of the flavors you can find now are pretty cool. Definitely makes it easier to change up your flavors.  The frosting is just a vanilla frosting, to be like the vanilla ice cream. These aren't quite as cold as the ice cream treat, but they are still reminiscent of Grandma's. (And the straws are just cute.)
 Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, August 30, 2013

Fabulous Classroom Decor!

Good evening! Phew! It's been a super busy day today. We woke up early to get started on classroom decorating, and spent a good 10 hours there, which is why this post is so late. Or early. I guess it depends on when it's actually read... It will be adorable, once it's all set. (I'm such a good sister, spending my free time helping out, huh?!) Today's project is a quick little banner I made for Robyn's room.

We needed to throw something together for yesterday's meet-and-greet, to spruce it up a bit. (And to show off our creativity to parents. Birthday parties, anyone?!)
Each subject is represented on the banner. Some are cuter than others, including the school-pride banner on the 'C'. Others have special touches, including the US map (with both homes) and the town school bus on the end. And, of course, each piece has a little sparkle, although it might be a little hard to see on a few.
The school's mascot is the "Wolf Pup"- how cute is that?! They are also red and navy, so it worked out so nicely that we red paw print ribbon. And the black paper behind it is from the grade-school stack, which is perfect for any school-related project!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, August 29, 2013

A Sunny Christmas Wish!

Hello! We hope everyone is having a fantastic Thursday! Today has been a perfect day to work on projects. Mother Nature must know school is starting soon and started fall. The last few, and next few, are supposed to be rainy. We can't complain though, because we have a ton of work to do, trying to decorate a classroom in time for the first day of school. A new project seems to pop up every few hours. Anyway, I took some time out to create this card. It's a super cute southern Christmas card:
How cute is he?! It looks like Santa has been having a relaxing summer vacation, too, before getting back to work! I guess he didn't use very much of his SPF 50 suntan lotion...
This is a closer view of him. I kind of went pop-dot happy on a few of the pieces, as you can see the shadow around him. There is also some added glitter in a few spots to add another fun touch! The last picture is the inside of the card. The only fitting sentiment we could agree on was "May your Christmas be Warm and Bright":
And we added one more touch with the holiday-inspired beach ball on the inside. 
We are entering this card into a few challenges. We used a variety of cartridges, including both paper doll ones and Doodlecharms.
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge: Challenge 175- Heat Wave 
Bitten by the Bug 2- Let's Get Wet! 
Thanks so much for stopping by! 




Wednesday, August 28, 2013

We're Celebrating Oktoberfest!

Guten tag! We hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday! It's been a pretty great day for us. The sun is shining and the creativity is flowing- can't get much better than that! (In our opinion, at least!)
I know it's a little later than normal, but here is today's project. As you can tell from the title, we have created an Oktoberfest party. It may not be for another few weeks, but it never hurts to start early!
This came to fruition the other day as we were driving around town and saw that they were having their own Oktoberfest celebration. It helps that, until a few years ago, there used to be a brewery in town, I guess. And what better way to celebrate our German heritage?! Below is a collage of some of the projects:
How cute are the little kiddies?! They pop up here and there in the projects, along with a few other designs. Like the German flag and a barrel!
Thanks for stopping by! Prost!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Happy Hanukkah Card

Hey there! Today's project is a fun card for Hanukkah. It started as 3- 4x12 inch rectangles. Each one was scored every three inches, so they are now 4x4 in squares. I glued the ends of them together, so I had 9 squares in all. There are then 9 candles, one shamash or "helper" and 8 more for each night. 
Here is a close up of the card. You can't really tell in them, but the silver is pretty awesome. It's super sparkly, which adds awesome to any project! And the card folds back into itself.
 Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, August 26, 2013

Tea Bag Ornament Card

Good morning! It is, sadly, the last week of summer vacation. Where did the time go?! But we have an awesome Christmas card to share with you today. Here's the front of the card. It's a pretty simple card, but the ornament is the star of the card.
And here's the ornament, taken off of the card. It's a "tea bag fold" ornament, which looks impressive, but was really easy to put together with lots of folds. Santa is glittered, but next time, I would do a different image, since this didn't work quite as well as I had hoped. Oh well.
Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Ghosty Center Step Card

Today we have a fun little card to share with you. We used it as an "invitation" to a Halloween party, but it is definitely cute enough to use for any other uses, like just saying hello!
 We made the front center flap open up to reveal a little poem on the inside. And all of the party information is on the other inside.
Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Cupcake Saturday!

I am so excited for today's cupcakes! We've been working on a Monsters, Inc party (invitations, banners, etc.) to put up on our etsy store. So we have some cupcakes to go with the party.
 
Here's a close up of the two. They didn't come out quite as good as I had hoped because the frosting was getting kind of warm, but they still get the point across, I think. I also wish I had a grass tip to make his hair a little more "hairy." There are two different types of cupcakes. Mike is funfetti, and Sully has a Milky Way stuck in the middle as a surprise. The frosting is all vanilla, with lots of food coloring, and candy eyes.
Thanks for stopping by!





Friday, August 23, 2013

Reindeer Family Card

Good Friday morning! I hope everyone had a great week and has some fun weekend plans. Today's project is a really simple Chrstmas card I whipped up in less than 5 minutes, which makes it one that you can send out to everyone, not just the Christmas card A-List. And the kiddos get to help out on this one!
The reindeer faces are simply brown ink thumbprints, with the ears and horns drawn in with marker. The eyes could also be drawn in, but I just love googly eyes and think they make everything 1000 times cuter. Then the noses are just red jewel embellishments and a rub-on sentiment. The nose could be drawn in too, but again, cards look better with a little bling, right? And to make it even quicker to make, the sentiment can be printed out, right to the card. The inside of the card says, "From Our Family to Yours." I love that it can be so customizable and that the kids can make their own reindeer.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Halloween Gatefold Invitation

Hey there! I hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far, enjoying the waning days of summer before school starts again. Today I have a very simple card to share with you!
It is a gatefold card, set up as a party invitation! Who wouldn't want to be invited to a party where the animals are dressed up?! (Reminds me of one of our aunts, but not in the best way... story for another day) I welded the three shapes together in craftroom (rectangle and two matching frames) and cut it in black. The top layer was just the frames cut again. The flap wasn't staying down all the way, so the "It's a Party!" is there for gravity to pull it back closed.
I stamped and embossed the "bewitching hour" and tried to color in the moon and stars. Neon yellow doesn't do a great job covering brown. Who knew? At least the moon looks good enough. Also, I have realized that no matter what the project, I should always have someone else do the handwriting. Mine always looks so sloppy. You'd think as someone who teaches kids how to form letters I would be better, or at least neater! Sometimes I try to make it look fancy and it ends up looking kind of foolish. I should probably stick to Photoshop or Word. Oh well...

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Some Boo-tacular Halloween Decor

Happy Wednesday! We hope everyone is having a great day, and everyone is as happy as a camel on hump day! We've been super busy, working on holiday projects, some new and some that were supposed to be done last year. Oops. Anyway, today's post is part of a new Halloween party we are working on. This is the centerpiece we designed:
There are four different pieces to the centerpiece. The haunted house is 9" high and the two little monsters are about 4" tall. (Googly eyes make everything better, unless they are very different in size. Granted, the size difference is in the design, but still.)
The little moon is probably my favorite! It's not really that small, but it's just so darn cute! And the little bat just adds even more cuteness to it!
 Like we mentioned before, it's part of a party line we've been working on. We have a ton more projects to share coming up!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a superb day!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Simple Snowflake Christmas Card

Today we have a very simple Christmas card to share with you. It's a 5x5 square, with each smaller square measuring 1.5 inches. The snowflakes are some brads we've had, waiting for something to put them on! Even though it took less than 10 minutes to put together, it packs a pretty punch.
Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, August 19, 2013

Monsters Galore!

I hope everyone is having a great Monday! But if you're having a case of the Mondays, this will definitely cheer you up! We have a fantastic Monsters, Inc party set-up to share with you.
 
Even though no one we know is having a birthday party any time soon, and definitely not a Monsters, Inc one, it was super fun to make. The first part is a banner wishing the birthday kid a "Happy Boo-Day," and is surrounded by a cutout garland.

 
Next up is some door and/or wall decor. We made a wreath with Mike, Sulley, and Boo. Along with it, is a door hanger with the birthday kid's name and age.

 
Next up are the cards for the party. The invitation measures 5x7 with all of the party information. There is also a thank you note for after the fun, both with cutouts with the main characters.
Finally, we have a favor bag. This might be my favorite part of all. It is a flip down bag, or could be made with ribbon or string to tie it shut, and is modeled after Boo's door. We made a birthday card that looked like this, but it sure makes one really cool bag. 

 Thanks for stopping by!



Sunday, August 18, 2013

A Happy Boo to You!

Happy Sunday! We hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. We've been super busy this weekend. We spent yesterday working on a ton of projects that will *hopefully* be up soon. Anyway, today's project is a cute little Halloween banner.
It's a little hard to read, with the glare from the window, and the fact that it's pretty busy. It reads "Boo to You" (hence, the title of the post!) and it has a few little monsters on it. Here are two pictures of the banner, up close:
There are three little monsters that wouldn't be complete without their googly eyes. And each flower is handmade, which took a little (a lot) longer than it should. Trying to come up with a placement for the flowers. I tried to make a pattern, but it didn't work out quite right. Luckily, it came out well, in our opinion!
Thanks for stopping by today! We hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Cupcake Saturday!

I don't know about you, but this week went by super fast! We've been busy adding to our store, with new cards and banners. And we had our aunt and uncle over, which was great. It's been a few years since we've seen them, so it was nice.
It started to feel a little like fall, and by that, I mean, we had two days of rain. After almost 2 months without any rain, we had just a little. So for our first fall-inspired cupcakes of the season, we have a Spiked Pumpkin Latte cupcakes!
These cupcakes have pumpkin puree and coffee granules, and are spiked with pumpkin pie liqueur. The original recipe called for mudslide mix, but I couldn't find any, and found this instead. It works for me! The frosting is a buttercream, with the same ingredients mixed in.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, August 16, 2013

It's Friday!

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a fantastic week and has some fun plans! We have some family coming out to visit this weekend, on their Western vacation, so we're looking forward to them coming. And we also have other news to share. We're getting an addition to our family, now that our brother is engaged to his girlfriend! So to celebrate, we made today's card for the happy couple.
The inside says, "Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale." It's perfect for the two of them! My favorite part is definitely the "diamond" ring.
Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

"Thankful For You" Banner

Good morning! I hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far. We've been making decorations for around the house this week. Even though it's early, we started putting some things up to add some color around the apartment. And we definitely beat our mom and SIL, since they've been in "competition for earliest decorator" for the last few years. Here's one of the banners we made.
As you can see in the close up, there are a lot of little pieces in this one, but it was definitely worth it. And the best part was that I didn't lose any of the pieces! I love how colorful it is.
Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Happy Anniversary, Part 2!

Today's card is for our brother and sister-in-law's 8th anniversary. It was over the weekend, but we wanted to make sure she didn't see it on the blog before she got it in the mail. Don't want to ruin any surprises, right? Here's a look at the card flat. It's a little hard to tell in the pictures, but we used a bronze paper, since that's the 8th anniversary "gift" and pink is her favorite color.

It's an easel card, so here are two more pictures of it standing up.
 Thanks for stopping by!