A New Niecphew!

I'm going to be an auntie again! Baby short-stuff niece, Lil T, is going to be a big sister! Eee! Pretty exciting stuff, so I had to be sure to send a congratulations card to my bro and sil. Before Lil T's arrival I made a pretty cute congratulations card, half blue and half pink with some purple in the middle since we did not yet know her gender. This was before I was consistent with taking pictures of my cards so I don't have one to show you. I knew my new card would have to be different so the tykes wouldn't judge me and resent me for being a lazy copier. Again we do not yet know niecphew's gender so I went with non-gender-specific greens and yellows. I made this during my crafting frenzy last week but had to wait for bro and sil to get it in the mail before I could post it. I will admit that I used the same sentiment in each card, but honestly babies really are a nice way to start people.

Welcome Little One
Supplies:
HA Clear Design Baby Boy and Baby Girl sets

Inside:
"Babies are such a nice way to start people" A quote by Don Herald taken from a Penny Black stamp

Little Birthday

I loved the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder from the very first time I saw someone use it. Then I saw a few cards where the entire front of the card was Swiss Dots with a small stamped image and knew that not only did I need to find that folder stat, but I would have to make a card like that myself. So I did! I call this one Little Birthday because it is slightly smaller than a standard sized card to avoid a border of blank space the embossing folder wouldn't reach. If you're interested I just measured it and it is approx 3.75" x 5" - I didn't pick the measurements but happened to have a scrap piece of card stock that worked.

Little Birthday
Supplies
HA Clear Design Number Zero

Inside
{wishing you a one-of-a-kind BIRTHDAY}
HA Clear Design Birthday Messages

Little Reminders

Six or so weeks ago, an email was sent on my behalf around the office telling everyone about my participation in the upcoming 3-Day walk. I've had a lot of responses! All very positive and sometimes glowing. I knew this walk would be an amazing life experience but I was a little unprepared for all the warm fuzzies I'd feel before the actual event. I do have a little bit of a hard time when it comes to asking people for donations, but I wanted to remind everyone that they could still donate if they wanted to. I thought to myself, "what could be less pesky than something crafted coupled with cookies? Nothing!" I had all sorts of visions of cute little bags of cookies with little reminder tags on them. But then I got to thinking about how green my office is and I wasn't sure I'd want to walk in with individually wrapped things that could work just as easily in Tupperware. I could have looked for little kraft paper bags, but I worry about the butter in the cookies leaving greeze marks which is never appetizing. Ultimately I decided to go the big Tupperware container route as a free for all. I made a little card to put in front of the container and about 8 little business type cards with my walk web address that people can take.

Here is the little announcement card:













Oh yes that does say "and/or organic apples." We have a few people in our office who are very conscious of what they eat so I wanted to be thoughtful and have snack options for everyone.

These are the business cards. The logo is the official downloadable Walker Logo from the 3-Day website. I only put ribbons on half of them, haven't decided yet if I should ribbon them all. Decisions are hard.













Overall it isn't my grand vision of precious cookie favor bags, but I like what I've made and it is a lot less work for an outcome that is somewhat of an unknown anyway.

5 Thank Yous

Yesterday was a marvelously successful Thank You day! I quickly and easily pinked up the original TY I showed you yesterday by adding a ribbon. Yes that is a pink staple. You will see from the next post that I learned a little later on that two staples work better at keeping the ribbon in the proper position. It was too late to add a second to this one, but I still like it!

Pinked Many Many Thanks

















Next up are 4 unique new TYs! I was a busy crafting bee yesterday. You'll notice I continued with the rounded edge theme. My corner rounder is getting pretty dull. The first two use HA Clear Design Thank You Messages, the second two use HA Clear Design Anytime Messages.

Thank You One













Thank You Two


















Thank You Three


















Thank You Four

















(Aside: You know what would make this last one cuter? More rounded edges!)

Now I just need to write in them and send them off!

Craftacular!

This week has been super craftacular for me. Not only did I craft on Monday and Tuesday, but Lysa and I went to a Stampin' UP! 101020 class on Thursday! I've really been on a roll these past two weeks. No guarantees on how long I'll keep this up for, but let me just tell you I've been enjoying it thoroughly.

Other things bloggy: You may have noticed that I changed my blog URL. Though now I'm in a quandary of how I should electronically sign my pictures. My blog title is still Designs By Meg after all, but I like Meg Becka too. Since it appears to be an impossible decision for me, today's card pictures are going to be nekkid. {Subsequent Edit: I decided.}

On that note, let's get started! This is the new Thank You card I made on Tuesday. I have about 5 extended family members to thank for 3 Day donations. I was getting pretty bored with making the same one over and over, so I came up with this to mix things up. I'm a little disappointed that there's no pink included at all since that is the color of support. I'm going to see if I can find a way (that I like) to pink it up a little. I also have 4 more Thank Yous to tackle, maybe I'll come up with something new and better.

Many Many Thanks
Supplies
Hero Arts Clear Design Thank You Messages















Now for the Stampin' UP! cards. This was really a fun night, and actually historic in that somehow it was the first time Lysa and I have ever crafted together! I got to use some new fun tools that I've always wanted to try but couldn't bring myself to buy just yet, like the stamp-a-ma-jig and glue dots. Not sure I'm going to rush out for the jig even though I really liked it. I probably will get some glue dots though, they were so much better than using liquid glue for ribbon in particular. There are ten cards total (101020 = 10 cards, 10 mins or less each, all for $20) so I grouped them together for some shots to share. It's hard to pick a favorite but I'm leaning toward the cupcake with the 'make a wish' sentiment in the first group. I absolutely love the note book paper punch! Which is apparently exclusive to SU and actually called the 'spiral punch.' I dig! I also love the mini clip and the glitter. Normally I'm not a fan of pink and orange together, but in both of the P&O cards below I think it works well. The SU cards were all designed by demonstrator and host Rhonda:

Group One













Group Two













Group Three













I have a few things I'm working on today, like the aforementioned Thank Yous, but also some donation reminders. Depending on my success I might even post again this weekend!

October Fun in September

This post is the culmination of two weekends worth of crafting for the heck of it. Though with so many holidays coming up next month I decided to take a crack at crafting for them! By "so many" I really just mean two, Dad's Birthday and Halloween.

I'll start with Dad's Birthday since it occurs in the first half of the month. This is my preliminary Dad Birthday 08 card. I'd like to play with a few more birthday cards for fun. I like how this one is customized. If you can't tell with the shoddy photography the 14 in the date circle is stamped in red, as you may deduce that is Dad's birthday. From here I see two things happening: 1. I make a few more birthday cards and pick the best out of those, 2. I get lazy again and procrastinate on the crafting and then have to use this one because it's the only one I have.

Dad's Birthday 08
Supplies
Hero Arts Clear Design Month October
Hero Arts Clear Design Birthday Messages
Light and Dark Blue Colored Staples









Now moving along to Halloween I'm really pleased with what I have so far. One standard card and two shorties! I still have a bunch of ideas for more cards too! I figure if I go crazy and make a bunch more I can give them to my 3-Day team along with my family. So even though it pains me to post these and ruin the surprise for who I may send them to, here they are:

Happy Halloween!
Supplies
Doodlebug Halloween
Hero Arts Clear Design Happy Halloween











Trick or Treat Shorty
Supplies
Doodlebug Halloween












Boo! Shorty
Supplies
Doodlebug Halloween

3-Day Thank Yous

Wow has it been a long time since I've crafted! So much for my card a week just for fun idea. I've been a combination of busy and lazy (mostly lazy, naturally) but finally made a new card yesterday. Though this card has a purpose! I finally was able to buy my own Swiss Dots folder for my Cuttlebug, so I knew I had to use it soon. Plus, I finally sent out a donation request at work for my 3-Day fundraising endeavours and I wanted a new Thank You card for anyone who was able to donate. Swiss Dots + Thank You = My New Card below!

Supplies Used:
CB Swiss Dots!
Hero Arts Clear Design Thank You Messages
Yellow Colored Staples













Here's a shot of the inside:
Supplies Used:
Hero Arts Clear Design Anytime Messages















I also wanted to share a picture of the little gifts I'm giving out too. Nothing too fancy, little pink tulle baggies of chocolate candy, but I beaded the string that ties it up and think it's super cute. The metal ribbon charm says "Hope." I originally wanted to use braiding cord to tie up the baggies, but the holes on the beads were too small so I went with embroidery floss instead. I think it still turned out pretty well though. Braiding cord is another new fun item in my toolkit. Lysa and others in the interwebs have been tying their buttons (as exampled in my new card) which have been looking so cute. Lysa uses braiding cord and I finally just remembered to look for it at the store and stocked up.

Hopefully it won't be too long until my next new card and/or project!

Shorties

I have some small 3.5" x 3.5" envelopes that I've been wanting to use. Today's crafting-for-crafting's-sake was to make little cards so I could finally put the envelopes to use! If inch squares can be called inchies I've decided that these small cards should be called shorties. To keep with the short theme I made the first one for my favorite SIL and my most favorite baby, short-stuff, niece. The second I made entirely with my grandma's tiny dog in my lap. Quite a shorty day!

I started the cards to be just under 3.5" square and double checked they fit perfectly into the envelopes - perfecto! Then I added everything to the outside and naturally they no longer fit into the envelopes... the next shorties will be 3.25" square or less!

You Make Me So Happy (Inside: I could wag my tail.)
Supplies:
Clear Mini Stamps
Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles
Color staples (been dying to use these too!)










Flowers
Supplies
Snag'em Stamps Flowers












Just for reference here are the shorties on top of a standard sized white card.

Something Tweet!

I've decided that I need to start making at least one card a week. Not for any occasion, but just because I want to! I have so many stamps and other supplies that I always want to use but they never seem to work for whatever occasion card I'm making. So now I will just make random cards for myself to share on this blog. Should any end up being used for later occasions then it will be a bonus.

Today's installment is "Something Tweet." Oh yes, very tweet. I've been wanting to use this lil Chickie since I got it. So here it is!

Something Tweet
Supplies Used:
Snag'em Stamps Chick
Cuttlebug Perfectly Paisley

Happy 4th of July!

Don't you just love a good holiday? I know I sure do! Every year I always want to make 4th of July cards. I finally made my first one last year and I more or less wasn't terribly pleased with the outcome. This year's attempt is the other inchie card I mentioned last time, and kicks the pants off of last year's card. I still feel this isn't the best one I could ever make, but I think it's on the right track.

4th of July Inchie:
Supplies used:
Hero Arts ClearDesign Number Four
Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Happy Greetings