Happy Birthday POPO!

It was my lovely mother's bday this weekend! LoVe YoU MaMa!

So the card I made for the Mojo Monday 185 challenge was a bday card for her :)

I was looking for an element to add to this card that would give it a special touch. I saw an Easter project on the blog Sweet About Me that incorporated a little picket fence. Perfect! 

To make my fence I used card board that I painted white. The paper flower I learned how to make from Paper Craft Central. The yellow polka dot paper came from an envelope for a card I saw sent, and I used a stamp from Hot Off The Press' Delicate Patterns collection on the green leaves. 

My mom loved her card :))

 
 

*Nik*

{Another} Double Sketch Challenge

This time it's Color Throwdown #135 aaaannnddd Mojo Monday #184

(Wow this is my second blog post in one week!)

I got a masculine vibe from the color scheme, so I took the opportunity to make a card for the upcoming birthday of a male family member. (Hope he doesn't read this blog before I give him the card!) 

My two favorite parts of the card: 

-The background paper that I made by laying down a paper star and sponging black ink around it, kind of like a stencil. 

-The little circle, I spray painted red and on it used another star as a stencil. But this time I used a paint brush and cream colored acrylic paint. I then added the, now black, paper star that I originally used to create the background paper.

I also like the staples because it gives the card an edgy touch :)

*Nik*

Double Sketch Challenge...

So TWO challenges in one this week...
Color Throwdown #134 aaannndd Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #40

 I was happy when I saw the sketch was banners!!!... love them.
This is my rendition...

Pinwheel close-up

I think the pinwheels give the card a whimsical feel :) 

I'm the kind of person that hates throwing away pretty stuff I find. It just makes me sad to see pretty paper "die" (lol). I keep it in hopes of being able to reuse it at some point. So it gave me much joy to recycle the lovely orange leaves that came in a wedding invitation I was sent recently. They fit perfectly with the color/design scheme. I used ink, pattern stamps,  and acrylic paint for the finishing touches. 

 

*Nik*

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #38

I can't wait for summer and garden season! Wishful thinking was the inspiration for this birthday card, along with a great crafter Ronda Palazzari. I LOVED the 3D paper pear she made and wanted to try making something similar. Her's is better haha. But I am happy with mine :) I'm sure that my bestie was happy when I gave it to her too.


I used paper from a Martha Stewart Crafts paper pad and several Delicate Patterns stamps by Hot Off The Press

 

*Nik*

A Bit Of Sunshine In Mid-winter

This was the beautiful winter scene outside my front window... almost made me like winter. Almost. 
Fighting seasonal depression up here in the Northeast feels like an uphill battle. That I often lose. (Oh well, cant win them all.) However one of the bright spots to this season  is the birthday of my son.  I had a couple of projects to make for the occasion. 1} a pinata 2} a cake. 

 1} At first I was just going to buy a pinata, but the ones I saw at Wal-mart cost around $15! Too much. I very often look at over priced items and say to myself, " Psshhh! I can MAKE this!" (Even about things like outdoor furniture and shoes. Bad?) I just hate buying stuff I know I can make.  So I made mine out of a pizza box. It was pretty easy, but a little time consuming. 

Of course the pinata was in the design of a soccer ball. I started by cutting the pizza box into two circles. Then I cut the rest of the box into 2 inch strips that I hot-glued to the circles. Next I covered the whole thing in tissue paper. To make the sides of the pinata a little frilly I cut strips of fringed tissue paper and glued them all along the sides. I then printed out a picture of a soccer ball and pasted it to both sides. To add a festive touch I attached colorful ribbon to the bottom and curled. The finishing touch... candy! Done.

The pinata full of candy and trinkets.

I was sad to see it hit to smithereens...

2} Then came the cake, yum! I was inspired to make a sort of  Rainbow Cake. But, I thought that maybe doing a legit rainbow cake would be a lil too girly. So I only used 4 colors and called it a tye-dye cake, lol! Anywaaaay, it was another very easy project. I split the store bought cake mix into 4 bowls and used gel food coloring to make the colors I wanted. Then I took a measuring spoon and dumped the different colors on top of each other. 

Before baking.

Most of people in my family are not big fans of regular cake frosting. So I attempted to make a whipped frosting at home. It was a disaster! A bad recipe I guess. So I had to run to the store and buy the frosting that comes in the tubs. I modified it a bit by adding some half and half. It came out very good, more smooth and light than usual frosting. I think I will do this every time I buy frosting. The cake tasted soo good.

Half-eaten piece. Wish I had this right now! mmmm

*Nik*

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #32

Doing these challenges is so fun!

Here is the template...

And here is my original take on it...

I decided to do a Valentine's Day card because the local Christian radio station is doing a FORGET-ME-NOT program that gives cards to area nursing homes and assisted living residents who won't get any cards on Valetine's Day. Sweet huh?

I used paper from GCD Studios Zen Garden Collection and Colorbok's Pastels pack. The heart is courtesy of my son and acrylic paint :) He really enjoys painting and I wanted to get him involved in the project somehow. The little cat is from a pack of cute paper animal accents made by K&Company.  



*Nik*

Verve Diva Dare Challenge

This card is for the Verve January challenge - Baby Love. I made the card for a dear friend of mine that has become a new mother :)

Unfortunately I did not use any Verve stamps on this card because I dont have any yet, however the letters on the banner are stamped from Studio G's Alphabet Stamp Set Series 4, and the sentiment came from a sticker set I had (which I cant credit because I cant find...ooops). Everything else I hand cut/drew from paper in the GCD Studio's Zen Garden collection and cardboard scraps. I really liked how this came out :)



*Nik*

My {late} Christmas!

Yes, I know that Christmas day was over two weeks ago but I still want to blog about it anyway. Hope that's okay :)

I had a wonderful time in SC! I miss living in the South but I really don't... it's a little complicated. It is truly amazing that over there it can snow 3" in one day and be almost completely gone, melted away the very next day, haha! Love it. I was happy to get home though, and so was my boy. Man was he a handful at times! It's almost like as soon as he senses he's not in his usual surroundings/routine a crazy switch goes off in his cute little head. (I guess it also didn't help that his sleep schedule inevitably got completely ruined, poor thing.) 

So anyway this is a picture of an ornament I made, like?

I was given this super cute gift by a super cool person (you know who you are ;) ) My son, my little cousins, and I had so much fun with it. It's the Sugar Cookie Workshop sold by Trader Joe's. What could be better than making something cute and then getting to eat it! Nothing is the correct answer. 

The kit

The result

Cookies the Pononos decorated

While on Christmas break two great things happened... a birth and a birthday. Congrats to the new mommy and the birthday dude! I made a card for both occasions featuring the banner, it's just so festive.

*Nik*