Just Add Water

We're enjoying a beautiful Indian Summer here in North Carolina and we made one last beach trip before the season turns to Fall. While at the beach, my toddler loved playing with the boogie board most of all. He spent a lot of time at the beach either tugging it along behind him in the sand or sitting on it at the ocean’s edge. He never did get the hang of standing on it and riding the waves, but he’s just 2. Next year...
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I used the colors in my toddler’s swim trunks to guide my paper choices. I used a mix of Echo Park lines: orange from Splash, yellow from Victoria Gardens and green from Sweet Summertime. 

I knew I wanted to have a surfboard, so I drew one on cardboard and cut it out as a template. I cut a surfboard from the same yellow paper under the photos. I painted it white with acrylics, then used a swirl border as a mask. I misted over the mask with yellow and blue mist and inked the edges of the paper and added some stitching. Then I sewed on a big wave sticker to anchor and balance the page.

For the title spot, I used a journaling card, a phrase sticker (“just add water”) and some alphas, To finish the layout, I added a little photo tab on the top picture and a border sticker down the length of the photos.

Supply List:

Patterned Paper: Echo Park (Victoria Garden, Splasy, Sweet Summertime, Country Drive)

Stickers: Echo Park (Splash)

Alphas : Webster's Pages, Echo Park

Country Drive: journaling card

Paint: Ranger

Ink: Ranger

Mists: Tattered Angels

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Thread: Craft supply

Fun with Puns

I've always been a bit corny and am partial to jokes that are dumb but funny. At least to my funnybone. Just to give you an idea of how easy it is to make me smile, these jokes did:

Why did the pirate go to the Caribbean?
He wanted some Arrrr and Arrrr.

Why couldn't Dracula's wife get to sleep?

Because of his coffin.

Why did the skeleton go to the party alone?
He had no body to go with him...

I'm always on the lookout for punny sayings. My favorite place to use puns (and lame jokes) is on cards. I'm the kind of geek who will browse in Hallmark and giggle. A sad but true fact.

This is a card I made over the weekend and somehow hoodwinked Echo Park into putting it on its blog.

As soon as I saw this cute bottlecap pp in EP's Happy Days line, I knew it was ripe for a pun.  This was a really fast card to put together. I used a blank American Crafts 5x7 card as my base and just cut it down to a square.  The pink pp is the flip side of the bottlecaps. The banner, alphas and red scallop line are EP stickers. 

To give the banner a little oomph, I backed it with cardboard, then sewed it to the card. This gives a bit of dimension and texture but still makes it easy to mail in a standard envelope.

Echo Park posted a couple more of my punny cards on its blog today.  You can see them here.  Methinks the kind folks at EP are feeling a little sorry now that they named me as September's Fresh Face....

Inspiration from Geoge Clooney

I don't know about you, but I am inspired by George Clooney. I love his passion for the people of the Sudan; his activism for things that many Americans take little notice of. I like that he uses his celebrity for good. Yes, there is a lot to like about George Clooney.  He seems like he'd be someone that you'd smile to be around. And, well, he's pretty easy on the eyes. There's that too.

But this is a papercrafting blog, so where exactly does George Clooney fit in?  I was over on Pinterest  the other day and I saw this movie poster for George Clooney's movie, Up In the Air.  It's hard to believe that a movie promoting Mr. Clooney wouldn't have his twinkling eyes prominently featured.  But this was a sparse little poster and I loved the design.  I especially loved those cute little clouds made from hearts. Aren't they adorable?

I immediately knew I would use the heart clouds somewhere on a paper crafting project and I thought they worked perfectly for this little valentine of a card.  I've had this sentiment in my head for awhile and when I saw this orange bicycle sticker from Echo Park, I knew that was just the thing I needed. I love blue and orange paired together.

For the backdrop, I use a fun pattern from Echo Park's Happy Days line. I wanted the bicyle and the heart clouds to pop a bit against the background, so I white washed the patterned paper a bit with some thin acrylic paint. I used heart punches to make the clouds then sewed them on the card to make them look a bit puffy. The sun sticker had a sentiment that didn’t fit the card, so I covered the wording by adding a plain yellow circle on top and inking the edges orange.

To finish the card, I wrote a sentiment with letter stickers. So, now I'm thinking I should send this card off to George....afterall, I really do bike him.

Teacher Gift: Candy Jar Pun Poem

Do you ever get news that has you grinning from ear to ear?  That's how I felt when I got word that Echo Park Paper had chosen me as its Fresh Face for September. I was giddy.  Yes, I was!  So, as I begin my role as EP's guest designer. I'd like to share the first project I made for the Echo Park blog: a teacher gift and card.

With the start of a new school year, I thought it would be a nice gesture to offer a little something to my son’s dayschool teacher. She is wonderful with the kids and provides such a warm and loving place for my little one to learn and grow. I wanted to remind her just how much she’s needed and appreciated.

This idea can be adapted to different teacher situations and can be used at the start of school, end of school or for teacher appreciation week. This is not my original poem. I adapted it from a version I saw online. It says:

You are such a SWEET TART for everything you do. You deserve 100 GRAND every PAYDAY. We know sometimes the kids act like AIRHEADS and NERDS. It must be hard to contain your SNICKERS when those little SUGAR BABIES tell you MOUNDS of NUTRAGEOUS stories. They can really come up with some WHOPPERS. I want you to know that I am grateful your work. You bring such (ALMOND) JOY to the classroom. You are the REISEN our kids are SMARTIES instead of DUM DUMS. Thank you for RAISIN (ETTES) our children to a higher level. You are a LIFESAVER and are worth a MINT. HUGS and KISSES.

To make this project, I started with a 32 oz plastic jar ($2.99 at Hobby Lobby). This size jar worked well because 12 inch strips circle around it perfectly. I used Echo Park's "Happy Days" collection. I cut a strip of striped paper and wrapped it around the middle of the jar. Then, I topped that with a piece of red cardstock which I border punched at the top and bottom and added the bottle cap icon strip.

To finish the jar, I added a black and white border sticker from Happy Days around the lid and punched a large red dot circle for the lid top. To make the hanging card, I printed the poem, backed it with black polka dot paper, punched a hole in the corner and used twine to hang the poem. Then I went to the store to look for all the candy in the poem and put that in the jar. To complete the gift, I made a card to coordinate with the jar using the Happy Days line.

Echo Park supply list:

Happy Days: Stripes, Bottle Caps, Border, Journaling Card, Element stickers, Alphas

Metro Stripes and Dots 6x6 pad: red polka dot and black polka dot

Playground: green alphas

Other supplies:

Border Punch: Fiskars

Ink: Ranger

Twine: The Twinery

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Thread: craft supply

You can find Echo Park's original blog post announcing me as its September Fresh Face here:
http://echoparkpaper.blogspot.com/2011/08/announcing-our-newest-fresh-face.html

I'm linking this here:

http://www.tipjunkie.com/homemade-projects-417/