Sassy Skull and XBones Card

My oldest brother celebrated his 42nd birthday last week.  I made him this simple card at my last "Craft Day" gathering.  

The striped skull & cross bones paper is Creative Imaginations Signature Collection "Caution Boy"  The polka dotted paper is from Rusty Pickle Panama Jack.   

The sentiment was from Inkadinkado "Humorous Birthday".  

Short and sweet, 

Jules 

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

  

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

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