There is Love

Don't tell, but I forgot a third October holiday. My parent's anniversary - shame on me! It is the 23rd so luckily I remembered with time to spare. I was also very interested in this week's Hero Arts contest: Patterned Paper. I'm no stranger to patterned paper but I wanted to do something more patterny than normal. Push my pattern boundaries, if you will. I must say that I love what came out of that! It is definitely more "loud" than anything I've ever made before, but that is actually what I love about it. This is also the first anniversary card I've made that I don't mostly hate.

Live, Laugh, Love
Supplies:
HA Clear Design L
Making Memories Embellishment Paper - Funky Vintage, Ruby Collection














I have yet to find a light source for my photography that I like as much as the midday sun. Unfortunately, during the week I don't get much midday sun (it would ruin my lovely complexion of 'office pale'), but by this weekend hopefully I'll get a shot of the card in the lighting that I prefer. I'm waiting till then to enter this one in the contest.

I want Sprinkles

A little back story on this first: Sometime in August a vendor I occasionally work with cleverly figured out that sending me 2 Sprinkles Cupcakes would be an easy way to expedite setting up a meeting with me. Now I had never had these delicate morsels of heaven before this time and boy can I say my life was incomplete before! I have made two trips of my own to our new store in town since then and I keep thinking up reasons why I need to go. What's even better is I've gotten my parents hooked! So now that we all dream in Sprinkles I wanted to Sprinkle a card. As you can see from pictures on their website they have a trademark dot that they use as a cupcake topper (made out of gum paste, not so tasty). They have different color combinations to signify each flavor. I wanted to make a birthday card option for dad using his favorite flavor's colors, brown with blue in the center (coconut!). This is also what started my quest to find every size circle punch ever made.

This card failed the original intent for three reasons. First, the dots just aren't the right size. I did measure a dot from our last set of cupcakes and I thought what I had would be close enough. I just don't like how they look. I only used one on this card, what the sentiment is hanging on, so you can see. Second, the coconut cupcakes aren't served with dots on them. They have coconut on them so something may have been lost in translation. Third, dad doesn't need 4 birthday cards! Mom has a birthday coming up in December so out of all fairness while I'm still riding a crafting wave I should be making her some birthday options too. So I'll retry this again, but using 3/4" and 1/2" circles. Her favorite flavors are actually served with the dots so it won't be as much of a stretch. Although I say this failed the original intent, I don't mean it failed completely. I really like it a lot! So it'll go into my general card pool and the next time someone deserves a day sprinkled with fun I'll already be ready already.

A Day Sprinkled With Fun
Stamp:
HA Clear Design Cupcakes















In looking through some past entries right now I just happened to realize how amazingly similar this looks to Thank You 2 from my 5 Thank Yous post. I CASEd myself! (CASE = Copy And Selectively Edit)

Manly!

My intentions behind this card were two-fold. Fold 1: I wanted to take another crack at a birthday card for dad. I liked the theory behind the original October circle with the 14 in another color to indicate his special day, though now I have a circle punch. Actually, now I have several circle punches, but that's a story for another day. Anyhow, I wanted to use my 2" circle punch with the October stamp. I must say I think it looks much better this way! Fold 2: I decided to finally make a card specifically to enter a Hero Arts contest! This week's contest is cards with a masculine flair. I went for a slightly distressed and thrown together look because aren't all men slightly distressed and thrown together? Maybe it isn't screaming "MANLY!" but it definitely isn't girly! This also happens to be my first 3" x 6" card, if I keep this up I'm going to have to purchase the appropriate envelopes.

Dad Birthday Option
Supplies:
HA October Month set
Spiral Punch - Yahoo!














I entered a few other previously made cards as well, the original Many Many Thanks, Brother's Father's Day Card, and 3-Day Woof. I'll let you know if I end up winning anything.

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!