Someone New In My Craft Room

I had the pleasure of hanging out with my 10 year old nephew, Jackson during my long Thanksgiving weekend.  It was a long time coming.  As these kids get older, they get busy!  Between boys scouts, sports and jobs, it's hard to pin down dates.

I made my nephew watch one of my favorite movies of all time, "Little Shop of Horrors".  I knew he would love it because I made his cousin Blake and his big sister Chandler watch it when they were younger and they both loved it.  I'm the aunt that makes her nephews and nieces watch movies from the 80's, you know, back when movies were good.   :)    

I even took Jackson Black Friday shopping at midnight with my friend Jennifer.  I filled him with powdered doughnuts and Mt Dew (Lisa, don't read this!).  He was really psyched about going...and then 10:30 rolled around and he passed out on my chaise lounge!  Thankfully, I was able to wake him up and we were on our way.

Jennifer and Jackson, waiting outside of Ulta, ready to get their makeup shopping on!  Doesn't Jack look so excited!  

There was quite the crowd at Ulta.  I don't think Jackson was quite ready for the frenzy because one moment he was right beside us and the next moment...gone!  Luckily, we knew something like that might happen so Jennifer told him to look for her since she's tall and wearing a white coat.  I found him wandering in the skin care section a few minutes later.  I asked him where he ended up.  He said he was over on the other side in the drugstore brand.  Oh, Jackson, you'll learn.  Aunt Julie likes the high end section on Black Friday!

Here's my haul!  

Too Faced "The Triple Threat"  $18

• Deluxe Primed & Poreless Skin Smoothing Face Primer 
• Glamour Gloss Volumizing Lip Gloss  
• Deluxe Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer

I've used the bronzer before. It's been in a couple of Too Faced sets I've bought before.  I like it although I have to watch it since I'm so pale.  It smells delicious!  I've never used their face primer before.  I highly recommend this primer.  It's so smooth!  And I've been enjoying the lip gloss.  Not too sticky, smells good, and makes my lips look nice and full.  

tarte "Balanced & Beautiful Amazonian Clay Essentials Kit"  $22

• Full size Amazonian clay 12 hour blush in flush
• Full size Amazonian clay waterproof cream eyeshadow in slate 
• Full size bamboo cream eyeshadow brush

Tarte is quickly becoming one of my favorite brands.  Their blushes are amazing!  I like their natural formulas (it's called high-performance naturals) and that they use recycled and recyclable materials for the packaging.  The blush that came in this set is normally $25 alone.  The cream shadow retails for $19.  The cream shadow will work great alone or as a base.  I've tried it both ways and it's good quality.  The blush is really bright so I try not to be so heavy handed with it.  I'm part albino though.  

Laura Geller  "Baked Eye Dreams Duo with Brushes"  $20

• shadow quad in "Pink Sunset"
• shadow quad in "Sandbar"
• 2 eyeshadow brushes

Laura Geller is new to me.  I've heard some of my favorite gurus rave about it.  This is why I love the holiday sales.  You get the opportunity to try great high end products at an affordable price.  I've only tried this dry but you can apply these baked shadows wet.  I love the nice subtle shimmer Sandbar gives.  Pink Sunset reminds me of Neopolitan ice cream.  It also looked very nice when I applied it.  I'm a fan of baked shadows.  If you get a chance, try out some Laura Geller shadows.  According to the website, these retail at $30 each.  It does look like the packaging is a bit different than what I got but the shadow is the same and the same size.  

Bedhead shampoo and conditioner 

I haven't tried this yet but it was on sale for $6.99 each so I'll givet it a try soon.  These retail for $15.99 each.

The rest of the stuff was not on sale but I did get to use my $3.50 Ulta coupon!  Woo hoo!  

I was so happy with my Tarte purchase, I ended up ordering the Sephora exclusive "Carried Away" set.  I can't wait to try it out.  I should be getting it soon.  I hope to be able to play around with it over the weekend.  Might even blog about it.  

Jackson and I made birthday cards for my step mom, Mary.  

This is his card!  

Jack picked out the polka dot paper himself.  You can't tell from the picture but the polka dots are risen so there's a nice texture.  I showed him how to cut the paper with my Fiskars paper trimmer.  He loved doing that!  

The embossed green dots cardstock is from DCWV and it's called "Nana's Kids Print".  

The hamster "Got Cake?" clear stamp is from Inkadinkado "Humorous Birthday".

The inside birthday cake and "happy birthday" stamp is from Fiskars "Birthday Party".  

I think Jack liked crafting although he did start to get a little crazy with the Stickles.  I think he liked the cutting and the taping part the most.  He lacked focus, just like any other 10 year old boy!  

Here's mine!  

The "Birthday Girl" paper is from Reminisce in the Princess collection.  I cut it to 5x7. 

The purple embellishments is Doodlebug Designs "Paper Frills".  These come 12 inches long so I cut it so I had one 5 inch and one 7 inch.  Perfect!  

The flowers are 3 petals from Recollections Floral Embellishments.  

I found a pretty brad to stick in the middle of the petals.  

The lady on the pony is a clear stamp from Inkadinkado "Humorous Birthday".  Mary likes Maxine and this felt kind of Maxinish.  

Happy Birthday, Mary!  I hope you liked your cards!  

I'm just a mean, green mother from outer space and I'm bad,

Jules

  

A Cupcake Two-fer!

Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody.  Ain't got no money because I didn't get paid...

Good evening, everybody!  I hope you're having a superfantabulous Saturday night.  I've been really busy lately so I haven't had a chance to blog even though I've been making cards.  Between working overtime, watching this season of Big Brother including episodes of the Dick at Nite recaps and my weekends being filled with fun activities, I haven't had a chance to get these cards up.  So, I am offering a birthday card two-fer!  

My grandma (on my dad's side) and my aunt Linda (also on my dad's side) celebrated birthdays in the month of August.  

Card #1 is for my Grandma that turned 86 years old.  

I like to refer to this as my ScrapFest card because most of it came from ScrapFest.  The paper on top was a gift given at one of the booths.  It is a sandable ColorCore cardstock from core'dinations.  It had a texture and I rubbed sand paper on it to create that faded look.  

The cupcake is from Doodlebug Designs doodle-pop collection.  It is called "Baby cake".  The "Happy Birthday" sentiment was also from a ScrapFest booth that I got YEARS ago.  It was one of those rub on stickers that I decided to save.  The polka dot paper is one of those no name papers from the Target dollar bin.  I think the striped ribbon is as well.  

Card #2 was for my aunt Linda who turned...

I liked the cupcake theme so much I chose to do it again.  The cupcake cardstock is from Bella Blvd (Baby Girl/"Baby Cakes").  It is double sided with a safari them on the other side.  I used my Creative Memories tearing tool for the lavender cardstock in the middle.  I had the cute cupcake sticker.  I think it might be from Target.  And the letters to spell out "Happy Birthday" were left at my house by a friend.  All so simple but cute!  

And now I want to eat a cupcake really bad.  If only we had cupcake ATMs like they do on the west coast.  Sigh...

I hope you enjoyed my cards.  I should have 2 or 3 more to post next week.  I'm hoping my weekends slow down so I can actually get back to scrapBOOKING.  It's been a long time and all of my back events are piling up.  

Forever a back scrapper, 

Jules

Happy Birthday To My Aunt Joyce

Summer is most definitely here!  My face is melting off!  I plan on staying inside all weekend with the air on and laying under my ceiling fan.

My aunt Joyce celebrated her birthday yesterday.  She is my dad's slightly older sister.  I say slightly because every year for one week only they are the same age.  Yes, my grandma and grandpa wasted no time after giving birth to Joyce!  

I wanted to make a card that was summery and that had a pop of color.  My friend Courtney gave me the table rubber stamp last year.  She got a huge box full of scrapbooking stuff at a garage sale and this happened to be in there.  The stamp is from Rubber Stampede and it's called "Dream Garden Table". I noticed there was one on Ebay if you really like it.  I used Copic markers to color it in.  The yellow green daisy paper came in a flower paper pack that I bought a long time ago.  And the daisy sticker is from  K&Company (Wild Saffron Daisies Paper Flowers).  

Thanks for looking!  I hope you liked my simple little card.  

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Aunt Joyce!

Your favorite niece (other than Candy & Kelly), 

Julie   

Ice Cream Birthday

My dad celebrated his birthday over the weekend.  I decided to make him a yummy birthday card.

The "Celebrate" paper is from Creative Imaginations.  I think it's out of print thought because I couldn't find it anywhere online.  The cool ice cream cone digi stamp is from Melonheadz.  And the Happy Birthday sentiment came from Tidbits Trinkets.  I used Distress Stickles on the ice cream.  

I had mentioned in a previous blog how Michael's has some really cute block stamps in their $1 bin and this "You're the Sweetest" is a prime example of that.  

Happy Birthday, Dad!  I hope you enjoyed your birthday weekend!  

Too tired to think of a smarty pants closing sentiment,

Jules

Esquilo Suave

Good day, everybody!   Beer bread is baking in the oven, I'm in some comfy jammies and I have a huge bottle of cold Mt Dew by my side.  Yep, I love Sundays!

I have another fun birthday card to show you today.  This one goes out to my friend, Wendy aka Wendall aka Fraulein Beaverhausen or as my dad calls her, "The Beave".  How do I know Wendy?  I met her in high school through a group of friends.  I ended my friendship with those friends and sadly, my friendship with Wendy ended too.  Don't you just love high school politics?  Back in 2006, during the upswing of social media, I contacted Wendy via MySpace.   I remember being nervous that 1) she wouldn't remember me and 2) she was brainwashed by others to think I was bad news.  She responded to my message right away and we've been friends again ever since.  Wendy shares in my quirky sense of humor which is why we get along so well.

FACT: Wendall is certified in Portuguese.  She is mildly obsessed with squirrels and loves calling them by their Portuguese name which is "esquilo".

The squirrel paper is Reminisce: Autumn Forest: Sharing Squirrels.  It is a doubled sided 12x12 sheet that I cut down for the card.  I cut a rectangle from the other side of the sheet which is the brown piece you see on top of the squirrel paper.  And since I love brown and pink together (sounds dirty!), I chose some pink scraps from my scrap bin to go underneath the squirrel digi stamp.  And speaking of that digi stamp, I purchased it here at Pink Cat Studios, one of my favorite digi stamp stores.  They offered the branch for free.  I used my Copic markers to color in.  And I used some distress Stickles on the leaves to make them appear wet.  

On the the inside of the card...

I got this tea sample in the mail in response to my previous donation to The Catherine McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  I am not a tea drinker but I knew Wendy was, especially the green tea.  So I thought I would include it in her card.  

Continuing with the squirrel theme, I found this digi stamp at Paper Smooches.  I sloppily wrote out the sentiment.  Banksy, I am not.  

Wendy, with the Gloria Estefan CD I got her for her birthday.  Sadly, "Bad Boys" is not on there.  

Happy Birthday, Wendall P Faye Hoss!  

There's no easy way out, 

Jules 

The soundtrack to making this card: 

Makin' Bacon

Happy Easter, everybody!  I hope you had a wonderful day and don't have a bellyache from all the sodium filled food.  I made Easter dinner for some friends, a tradition I started last year, and have plenty of leftovers.  Yum, yum!

It was a busy weekend for me.  Not only did I celebrate Easter but I also celebrated my nephew, Zach's 10th birthday.

Zach likes money (don't we all?).   And he saves it, a trait that I'm quite jealous of.  I am horrible at saving money.  I'm hoping that once I get back on my feet I can start adopting some of those money saving habits.  And I really hope Zach continues saving his money too.  Maybe he can give his good ole Aunt Julie a loan one day.   ;-D  

Because he enjoys money so much, I immediately thought of him when I saw the Reminisce "Show Me the Money" paper at All About Pictures in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I cut it down for the front of the card.  I had a hard time figuring out what I was going to put on the card besides the money paper.  On a scrapbook day, Jennifer brought over her Cricut Expressions 2 and some of her cartridges.  I looked through them and then all of the sudden it came to.  Money, saving....PIGGY BANK!  And you know my Potato Head lovin' friend Jennifer had the Toy Story 3 Cricut cartridge which featured Hamm.  Perfection!  I found some army green card stock, cut it into squares, glued them into a giant square in the middle, centered Hamm on them and the rest was history!

I spent some time googling a bacon joke.  I found a lot of not so appropriate ones but finally settled on this corny ass one for the inside of the card.

I love this card!  I hope it gives other people ideas on card making for boys.  It gets kind of tough once they reach the double digits.  And no one wants to be that lame aunt that makes babyish cards.

I think Zach liked it.  He thought the joke was funny.  :)

OD'ing on Cadbury Creme Eggs,
Jules  

Got Crabs?

I have another birthday card for you today.  Another Principal friend and Lunch Lady, Judy, celebrated her birthday yesterday.  Judy has quite the sense of humor on her so I knew a sappy sentimental card would not do for her.  

Here's the latest card from my "WTF?" line...

I've been using the blank cards you buy in a pack at Michaels.  This is the first one that I just cut down myself using my Martha Stewart scoring board.  I picked yellow card stock.  The paper with the beach theme was from a brand called Die Cuts With A View from their "All About Boys" line.  This one was called "Under the Sea UV".  If I recall, I got this one from one of those $5 grab bags at the now closed Memories on Fifth.   This is what the whole 12x12 looked like.

Super cute, right?  I just cut out the bottom right hand corner because I wanted my focus to be on the crabs.  I adhered that to my card stock.  

I found two crab stickers at Michaels from Jolee's By You called "Crabs".  I placed them in the left hand corner of the card.  Those stickers are what gave me the idea for the card.  I just happened to remember that I had the sea paper.  They went together perfectly.  

And lastly, I added the smart ass "Got Crabs?"    You know my love for the double entendre.

And just in case you couldn't tell this is a birthday card...

Judy loved the card, or at least she said she did.  

Have a crabalicious day,

Jules 

Coffee With A Friend

My friend, Sara, just had a birthday.  I worked with her at Principal Financial Group for many years.  Sara is also one of the Lunch Ladies.  She and I both love coffee.  She prefers hers black while I enjoy the cream and sugar.  We have a few Principal coffee stories.

Sara would bring in her own little mini thermos and drink that in the morning.  And sometimes she would get coffee out of the machine which seriously smelled like motor oil and looked like sludge.  It was so strong that I could smell it coming down the hall.  And the machine would put cream in your coffee whether you wanted it or not.  I used to ask Sara if she needed to borrow my comb to straighten her chest hairs after drinking that coffee.

Sometimes I would bring in my big thermos of coffee.  If I didn't have it all gone by lunch time, I would give the rest of it to Sara.  She started referring to herself as the "Coffee Beggar" or "Coffee Bum".

And occasionally I'd sneak off to the nearby coffee shops during my breaks to pick up fancy coffee for us.  Leaving the work property was a no no during break time.  I'm such a rebel!

I found the cups (they're actually tea cups, hence the tea bag on top) digi stamp here!

I knew that I wanted to use bright colors and have them up against an electric blue background.  I used my Copic markers to color the cups in.  And I used Distress Stickles for the rims and handles of the cups.  You can't tell by the picture, but I gave the cups a little dimension by using a 3D foam pad behind each cup.  I staggered my stamp letters for the "Coffee?"

And the inside included a reminder to call me whenever she wanted to chit chat over coffee.

One thing I know about working at Principal is that I will never find another group of people like the ones I've worked with.  I've had so much fun these past almost 13 years.  And Sara is definitely one of a kind.  

Sniffles,

Jules

A Birthday Card For My Nephew

My nephew, the eldest of my brother Todd's kids, turns 19 years old today!  It seems like just yesterday that I was a freshman in high school anxiously awaiting his arrival into this world.

I was excited because I got to play with my new Copic markers!  I have a limited amount of colors at this time but it worked out wonderfully.

The star paper is put out by Lily Bee Designs from their Picket Fence collection.  It's called "Seize the Day".  And I just tore some white and red card stock.  You know how I like that "scrappy" look.  ;p   I used crazy scissors to cut the yellow square in the middle.  I also used a different pair of crazy scissors to cut the lime green "Happy Birthday" sentiment.  

I have one of those "Happy Birthday" clear rubber stamp packets that I bought at Michaels which included the candles stamp.  

BLUE AND GREEN CANDLE:  B29 (Ultramarine),  B14 (Light Blue), G17 (Forest Green), YG03 (Yellow Green), Distress Stickles in "Folded Jeans"

YELLOW CANDLE (the Big Bird Candle!):  YR04 (Chrome Orange), Y13 (Lemon Yellow),  E09 (Burnt Sienna),   RV11 (Pink), Distress Stickles in "Milled Lavender"

GREEN CANDLE:  G17 (Forest Green), YG03 (Yellow Green), Distress Stickles in "Peeled Paint" 

FLAMES: R08 (Vermilion), YR04 (Chrome Orange), Y13 (Lemon Yellow), Stickles in "Icicle"

I put the Distress Stickles on the candles in the attempt to make it look like melting wax.  

Not bad for my second time working with Copic markers.  I look forward to improving!  Copics are kind of pricey so I'm slowly adding to my collection.  I ended up getting the primary colors and the skin tones.  

Coloring is fun!  

Be excellent to each other...and party on, dudes

~Jules

Daisy Birthday Card

My friend Bev's birthday was yesterday.  Happy Birthday, Bev!  I made this card for her last Saturday at that scrapbooking retreat I talked about in my last blog.  

The paper is K&Company: Tim Coffey 12x12 Daisy embossed paper.  Yes, the card is textured.  I'm not typically into daisies but there was something elegant about this paper and I knew at some point I would make it into a card.  

I cut some vanilla colored card stock with straight lines and then I cut down an off white piece of card stock but used crazy scissors for the edges.  

I found the daisy sticker in a package also by K&Company (Wild Saffron Daisies Paper Flowers).  

I found the stamp at Michaels in the $1 bin.  It's by Studio G.  I love these $1 bin stamps.  They stamp surprisingly well and are just so simple.  

I got the "Blowing Birthday Wishes Your Way" stamp from Michaels in one of my birthday stamp sets.  That cute little daisy in the corner is another Michaels $1 bin special (although I think that one might have been more than a $1).  The brand is Inkadinkado in "Daisy".  

So there it is!  I hope you like it.  


~Jules

Octopus's Garden

As I mentioned on my Facebook page yesterday, Jennifer and I went to a scrapbooking event at the Cedar Rapids Public Library.  It was free and gave us a great opportunity to hang out with other scrapbookers and to use other people's tools.  I made 2 birthday cards and a two page scrapbook layout.  I am going to show you how I made one of the cards and then give you a peek at my scrapbook layout.  

So here's the scoop on the birthday card!  

I was shopping at a little gift shop in the Amana's some time ago and found a sheet of paper put out by Reminisce called "Pink Bubbly Fish".  It's double sided.

My first thought was this...

I'd like to be, under the sea...

And then I thought how great this paper would be for my niece's upcoming birthday card.  You see, I love cute paper like this.  And now that my nieces and nephews are getting older and I don't have any little girls of my own...yet, I'm running out of opportunities to use cute paper like this.  I mean, this paper doesn't exactly go with a 34 year old's lifestyle.  But it is perfect for a 3 year old and my niece Gracie is turning 3 next month!

I'm using both sides of the paper for this card.  One thing I love about two sided paper is the top of the paper that has the bar code and brand name on it typically doubles as extra design paper.  It allows you to utilize the whole sheet.  This paper was perfect for that because it created a fun and matching line to separate the "sea" from the stripes.  So I cut the "sea" side down to about 2/3 the size of the card and the stripe side was about 1/3 the size.  I made sure to use the flower part of the top of the striped paper to use as a divider between the two sides.  Then I glued them to my card.  

See how the flower line matches the color scheme yet acts as a great divider between the two patterns?  I love it!  

The next step involves the use of the Cricut Expression 2.  My friend Jennifer let me use hers.  She helped me cut out these accents.  The paper is your typical card stock you buy at Michaels.  I chose 3 different colors.  We used the Cricut Essentials Flower3 pattern for the dark pink and light pink.  The dark pink was made slightly bigger than the hot pink.  Then we used the #3 Alphabet Font 2 on the lavender paper, creating the cute "3".  

And then I layered them, using my glue.  

Next I glued the layered flower to my card, placing it on the flowered line.  I found some great stickers at Michaels from their Recollections line that seemed to match the card perfectly.  I stuck the octopus on.  I'm not sure if you can tell by the pic, but there are some sticker bubbles added too.  And then I used some Stickles in Frosted Lace all over the sea life in the top part of the card.  

  

And lastly, I used a Happy Birthday Balloon clear stamp for the sentiment inside of the card.  I'm not sure the brand on that stamp.  Sorry!  But I'm pretty sure it's from Michaels.  

I am in love with this card!  I almost don't want to give it to my niece!  But I still have some leftover scraps from the 12x12 paper so I have a feeling I'll be using this again.  

And now I'm seriously thinking about getting a Cricut.  

And here's my layout!

The pictures I scrapbooked are from a year ago.  My friend Stacy and I went bowling with her kids on a cold night.  And here is what transpired.  

 "Let's bowl, let's bowl, let's rock and roll!"  <----10 points if you know what that's from!

The cute bowling ball and pins sticker on the first page is from the beloved Jolee's brand.  The bowling ball and pins on the second page are from Karen Foster Design in "High Score".  I borrowed Jennifer's Cricut once again for the words "Strike" and "Spare".  I now wish I would have cut out the word "Split".  I'm very happy with this layout.  I will be doing another bowling page for 2012 and Jennifer and I have already come up with the layout using her Cricut.  Who knows, maybe I'll be using MY Cricut.    :giggle:  

Thanks for viewing.  I'll have another blog at the end of this week showcasing the other card I made. 

~Jules 

41st Birthday Card

My oldest brother turns 41 on January 20th.  I just sent him a birthday card which he probably won't be getting on time because I procrastinated on putting it in the mailbox.  

This will be a my first attempt at doing a step by step blog on a card I've made.  And it will probably be a half assed one at that.  My cards at this point are really pretty amateur.  This is not a put down in any way towards myself.  I am still a beginner in the card making game and I'm looking forward to learning more techniques.  

I bought this 12x12 "Crowns" paper by the brand The Paper Studio for 59 cents awhile ago.  I think this may have come from Hobby Lobby but don't quote me on that.  I cut the paper down to the size of the card and adhered it.    

Next I found some light purple card stock and cut it down to about 1/3 the size of the card.  I then took my Creative Memories tearing tool and tore a jagged edge.  I then adhered it to the card. 

I then found a lavender piece of card stock.  I cut it down just a little narrower and shorter than the light purple card stock.  This time I used the tearing tool on both ends.  I then distressed this with Distress Ink in "Worn Lipstick".  

I cut a circle in the lavender card stock.  I also distressed it like the above lavender strip.  Then I stamped the "41" with the Inkadinkado clear stamps in "Curly Q Alphabet".  I used Memories Dye Ink Pad in black.  Then I adhered the circle to the end of the lavender strip.  

Next I stamped the word "YEARS!" on the lavender strip with the same alphabet stamps and same ink.   Then I put some bling on the one side of the circle.  

And finally I used a "Happy Birthday" stamp from Rubber Stampede.  I recently bought a cupcake stamp from Michaels in the dollar bin and used the hot pink Memories Dye Ink Pad.  I used the new Distress Stickles in Milted Lavender for the frosting.  I also used regular Stickles in Cotton Candy on the frosting as well.  It doesn't show up very well in pictures.  

While this card is not terribly masculine, I chose crowns because I thought it seemed sort of manly.  I chose purple to accent because it's such a regal color.  I decided to distress with pink because my brother really likes the colors black and hot pink together.  And the bling also seemed to go well with the whole royal theme.  Certainly not the best card I've ever made.  I do much better with girly cards.  But I do like this card.  And hopefully my bro will too.  

Thanks for watching! 

~Jules