confetti

happy birthday monkey!

in addition to a monkey party, colleen wanted monkey cupcakes for her school snack celebration.  she liked both the cake and cupcake ideas we found and couldn't decide which one, so this way we were able to do them both!!  colleen especially loved helping with these--i spread the icing, she placed the cookies and candies.  the idea came from snooze-a-palooza, an american girl book that i use a lot.  it's all about different themes for sleepovers, but the theme ideas are great whether you're having a sleepover or not and it has become one of my favorite birthday party sources.  next year, she'll be in second grade, which is when i let mignon have her first sleepover, so she's already started studying the book and planning ahead!  monkey party pics still to come, but since today's the actual day, we have a family dinner tonight--and she's asked for a turquoise color scheme!

:) lexi

ribbonrie ~ craft critique

this is one of three cards i created for a book review article i wrote for craft critique today--the book is ribbonrie by making memories, perfect for the ribbon hoarder i have become!  to let the ribbon ideas from the book shine, i kept the layouts simple and pretty stamp free, except for the saltbox studio sentiments i chose for each one.  are you thinking summer?  today was our last day of school--this week of half days seemed to go on forever, but i'm so happy to have made it to the end in one piece.  i have lots of loose ends to tie up on various projects, but at least the ones that were needed for the end of school are done and out of the way!

have a great weekend...
:) lexi

p.s.  monkey party pics will be coming soon--i still have to choose and edit the pictures i want to use!

sock monkey family

yesterday was so busy, the closest i could get to posting was thinking about it--school, colleen's birthday party, swim team, cupcakes for school today.  i'm still tired thinking about it, but i have a ton of work to do before i can really rest (for my stamping readers, think saltbox sneak peeks coming soon!).  since i just can't skip another day of posting, here is a teaser from colleen's party yesterday--we went bananas monkeyin' around and i can't wait to share it all!!

:) lexi

a boxed set

three more days of school to go and the light at the end of the tunnel actually seems to be brighter!  i'll mostly be trading in the added rush of orders for less time to finish the others i might have, but that sounds good to me for now.  i know a lot of kids are gearing up for camp, so i thought i'd share this cute stationery set today.  the box from target was a perfect way to showcase the design and different elements of the set...

return address labels, stationery pages, foldover notes, address calling cards, and post cards--i should have photographed the back, but it looks just like a post card you'd buy.  all perfectly personalized for the camper who actually writes home--unlike my daughter!!

thanks for stopping by...
:) lexi

thank you for serving

here's a quick card for memorial day and thankful thoughts of those who lost their lives serving and protecting the freedoms we enjoy.  the basket and sentiment are both from the saltbox studio, the card from a muse.  we had a half day of school and a half day of pool and now i have to do a little work--the downside of working at home!!

:) lexi

sparkle shades

today i have another invite from the stack that piled so high last month.  the request was for a fun play-outside party with something a bit girly and maybe a craft idea to go with it.  so after finding the idea to embellish sunglasses with glitter glue and jewels from an american girl party book, i came up with the sparkle shades for the invitation.  when i drew them, i made sure to leave a little room for stickles!  when i spend time working on images like this, i always hope i'll have another chance to use them again.  so i was very excited a couple of weeks later when a friend asked me to help design a cd sticker for a pool party cd favor...

she had found an invitation to print herself and mentioned that there was a pair of shades on it, so of course my lightbulb went off.  no stickles this time since it's on the cd, but they make a great random summer fun pattern and i got to use my image again--and again and again!

have a great weekend!
:) lexi

mouse house

as promised when i posted mignon's birdville, here is colleen's saltbox studio masterpiece, mouse house.  she loves all of the saltbox mice and created a sweet little mom and kid scene here, with the mom imagining what her kids would be like all grown up.  i love the ladder she drew under the mouse with the star garland--a perfect touch!

:) lexi

a muse rocks seven!

happy 7th anniversary to a muse!  i've wanted to post this all day, but time was not on my side.  summer activities are already getting underway, but school hasn't quite ended, so that leads to double the fun and crazy days!  i am so thankful to linda for the many opportunities that have come my way beginning with my month as a muse guest designer last year to being on the saltbox studio team now.  so, just under the wire in my time zone and with a couple of hours to go a muse time, i wanted to play along with the creative team and share my top 7 a muse addictions...

1. rock star + you rock (duh!!)
2. tiny bird + anything to perch him on!
3. birthday builder set
4. all of the ovals
5. shopper (one of my 1st!!)
6. twinkle stickers
7. kitchen notes (all colors!)

okay, if you add them up individually, i guess it's more than seven.  and i totally could have kept on going--polka dot letters lc sm, the shops, boris, superhero, curly girl, fancy borders, fun sentiments, etc. etc.!  see, seven more just like that!!  be sure to check out linda's anniversary post to read more about her journey, plus a chance to win some of those sweet a muse goodies and links to anniversary cards created by the a muse creative team...

'nite!
:) lexi

p.s.  did you notice rock star's a muse t?!  i'm not sure that a yellow one exists, but i couldn't resist dressing him up for the occasion as i have in the past!!

soft celery bayou

i took a little time while printing to quickly play today's color challenge at splitcoast today--soft sky, certainly celery, and blue bayou.  i had my a muse note cards on my desk, so i used the comparable colors along with my saltbox studio stamps and this is the result.  these shades of blue and green are so soft and pretty.  the branch is from tweets, the bird house from tweet houses, the sentiment from tweet companion and the fence from the older fences 1.  it's a good thing these stamp sets live so close to my desk!!

back to multi-tasking...
:) lexi

a rockin' girl birthday

this year, my little friend cece wanted a hannah party.  and while her mom got most of the party stuff from a party store, they wanted an invitation and cake by lexi.  playing with fonts is a fun way to mimic the look of the logo and get the feel for something like this while still having a printed, personalized invitation.  we talked about trying a guitar shaped cake, but then we decided to put a guitar on the cake instead, using the images and colors of the invite...

to transfer those elements to the cake, i printed them larger and cut them out to use as templates to cut the shapes in fondant icing.  i used two star cutters for the stars and saved the extras to use on the board.  i love how it came out!

cd mixes of a few of cece's favorite hannah songs were the perfect party favor, especially with a label to match the invitation.

and the large version of the guitar for the cake cut-outs was so cool i printed extra on text weight paper and used it for wrapping paper and a gift card--a very last minute idea!

here's colleen posing for another party favor/activity that michele found--a photo with hannah herself!  it was a big hit and cece had a great time!

rock on!
:) lexi

birdville

i just had to share mignon's work of art from our stamping together on thursday.  she loves all of the tweets and tweet houses from the saltbox studio and decided to go to town with them--literally, creating birdville!  i especially love how she used the branch to create the tree.  every bird has a house perched on those branches and the birdbath is their community pool!  colleen created a masterpiece too, but sh'e not quite finished, so she'll get a post of her own later...

hope you're having a great weekend!
:) lexi

another tweet inchie

after i finished yesterday's card, i still had this little inchie on my desk and just had to make a quick card with it.   i also still had the kraft card stock and the twine hanging around, too!  it was fun to create on such a little canvas--the bird was small enough to be able to include a bit of the branch to perch on and the size of inchie allows her to still take center stage on the larger card.  all stamps are from the saltbox studio, the notecard is a muse.

happy friday!
:) lexi

nesting?

i haven't had time this week to stamp for fun, with so much going on.  but the girls were home because it was conference day today, so when they were looking for something to do this afternoon, we stamped!  when i sat down, i was actually stumped about what to do!  finally, i decided to check out today's ways to use it challenge on splitcoast and here's where i ended up--creating with inchies.  the small saltbox tweets ended up being the perfect size and subject matter for the one inch square pieces.  and paired with the nest, these two have a little nesting to do!

thanks for all the comments about my cover card yesterday.  it was such a nice surprise when i found out about it, but it was even more exciting to actually see it!!

:) lexi

i'm a cover girl!!!

i've been dying for the june/july issue of paper crafts to be available.  i had a card and a notebook picked up for publication way back when, and then the contract came and said the "what's cookin'?" card would be on the cover, and i couldn't believe it--i kept thinking something else would catch the editors' eyes and mine would get bumped, but seeing is believing, right?!  rose ann commented that she saw it, so i picked one up at the bookstore even though it's probably on it's way to me--thanks rose ann!  this really is a huge incentive to get back to submitting.  the cover card and directions are also on page 86 and the notebook, on page 83--go check them out!  before you go, here are two variations of the same card...

all three images are from the a muse clear stamp set, party time.  and they would be great for father's day next month--what kind of cooks are the dads in your life?   

thanks for stopping by...
:) lexi

build-a-bear

today, i have one more of the cut out invitations that i created a few weeks ago.  i have a backlog of things to post, but i think i'm close to reaching the bottom of the stack!  this was an invitation to a build-a-bear party, so what's better than a dressed bear?!  i created a bear template on the computer and saved the document twice, as both the inside and the outside, adding the details necessary for each.  after printing one on each side of a piece of card stock and folding in the middle, they lined up perfectly for cutting out, leaving the fold on the hand to make it work.  here's the inside shot...

the head, legs and non-folding hand are all just on the back, with only the clothes on the front flap.  the lining up and making it work took a little longer than some of my other invites, but once you get it planned, it's easy to reproduce!

have a beary good day!
:) lexi

paper butterflies

for mother's day, i love to create little paper crafted gifts for the moms in our families, so i was very excited when i saw this post on lyndsay's blog, with links back to the original project by ali edwards and another by kelli crowe.  wow!  it was the perfect project and didn't take very long either.  i picked up a couple of the martha stewart shadow boxes when i went to get the butterfly punch, but i wanted to make some smaller versions as well, so i ended up with small canvases for those.  i even made a few extras for birthdays!  here's a close-up of one of the big ones...

i used the jolie chocolat 8 x 8 paper stack by s•e•i, which was perfect for the box and had some sparkle and shine included.  like lyndsay, i added a few a muse twinkle stickers to the outside of the box--the design just begs for them!

here is bird's eye view of all of the small canvases.  i wanted them to be somewhat unique, so i created each one using a different paper collection for quick and easy coordination, but i would love to take time one day to create something similar with more random scraps and still come up with something cohesive like ali's.  here are a couple more close-ups...

i swiped pink chalk ink over the canvases for a little color and heat set.  to attach the butterflies, i folded the wings up a bit and used crystal effects to glue the bodies to the canvas.  a little coordinating ribbon was perfect for decorating the sides and hiding the staples.  and the final touch was a line of platinum stickles to the butterfly "bodies" for added bling.

i was totally taken with the butterflies, but this was such a fun project that i have to do it again with other punches.  this is definitely one of those projects that looks like so much more than the time it takes to make it!

thanks for flying by...
:) lexi

happy mother's day!

here's a quick card i made for today using the very cute mother's day stamp in the mama mouse and more set from the saltbox studio.  i love the little flower detail--the micro dot twinkle sticker is the perfect fit for a little bling!  all paper is a muse--i used a scrap of a pink kitchen note for the band, adding fruit punch stickles to the dots for added texture and more sparkle.  for all of my readers who are mothers and mothers-to-be, i hope you're having a wonderful day!

:) lexi 

communion blessings

 

both my nephew and my godson had their first communion today and when i saw elena's invitations the other day, i was inspired to use the church tweet house from the saltbox studio for their gift cards.  i stamped and layered the image on watercolor paper, adhering it to a pre-made mini card from stampin' up!  i added a strip of the watercolor paper behind the scallop with the sentiment to give definition to the scallop--when it's closed the back of the card peeks out like an additonal layer.  i love easy-peasy!

:) lexi

singin' on the roof

here's another quick card with that cool around the block cloud paper that was in my treat box last week.  this time, a tweet house from the saltbox studio is high in the sky with the little birdie singing from the roof top!  so many sentiments would work with this, but i'm always in need of birthday cards and this one from a muse is one of my bird-day faves.

have a great weekend!
:) lexi

baby season!

here's one more baby shower invitation from last weekend, this time for an expected boy with a boat theme.  after studying lots of different tugboat pictures, i drew the boat on the computer using the basic shape tools.  i thought the design needed a little water and the scallop stamp from the a muse fancy borders clear stamp set fit the bill perfectly, especially since i could easily see through it to stamp it three times and space it just right!  i accidentally printed way too many of the little boats, so i offered the hostess a set of matching thank you notes to give to the honoree...

i still have lots more, so i'll have to come up with some new designs and more reasons to use them up!  when i'm creating sets like this (as well as individual cards), i rely on my teflon bone folder to press my creases perfectly.  do you have one?  it's such an unsung "behind-the-scenes" tool, but i really do use it every day, so it was the perfect tool to review for craft critique.  if you want to know more, my article was posted this morning--go check it out!

:) lexi