2011 Taj Calendar

My first completed calendar.  I love taj characters--they are so cute!

Originally, the calendar came like this huge rolled up sheet.  I got 3 of them for free when I made a recent purchase at their store.  Every year I think the calendars are so cute but I don't know what to do with them cause I don't have a large enough space to hang it up.  This year I decided to cut each month out and attach to an easel card.  Click on the photo above to see a closer picture of each month. 

I like the sentiment--very fitting for the paper and for a calendar, I think.

The calendar was rolled up for so long that I had to smash it down after I cut the months out under a heavy container for a couple days.  Then I just put some glue on top so the pages would tear off.  The only thing that throws me off is that for January 2011 they have the "year of the tiger" since they print their 2010 shirt designs on the 2011 months.  2011 is the year of the rabbit.

taj has a blog but I don't think they update it much.  This site shows a lot of their card samples.  So cute!

It's been a long day.  My daughter's state Lego tournament was from this morning til almost 4 pm.  But she got a medal and her team won a teamwork trophy!  There were 56 teams today! 

Thanks for reading and hope you're having a great weekend!

Wagon Full of Love

This is a little easel card I made for my daughter.  It's the first time I've used Pure Innocence stamps.  I thought this one was so cute with her little wagon and so perfect for the occasion.  My daughter has been working so hard to participate in her school's Lego Robotics team.  They practice endlessly and she's given up lots of free time and had to give up swimming and participating in this season's tennis league.  But she loves to go to the lego practices.  She almost gave it all up because she was so afraid of public speaking.  They have to make an oral presentation to a small group of judges this Saturday.  She had quit but one of her coaches asked her to reconsider and I'm so happy that she did.  I think she is glad she stuck with it too.  She's practiced so much and in front of so many different people that it's becoming less scary to speak.  I know her team will do well this Saturday and hopefully will make it to the state finals. 

Well, back to the card.  These little animals in the wagon are so stinkin' cute, I can't stand it.

The sentiment is just so perfect.  I used PTI's mat stack die and placed little rhinestones in the corners.

Hopefully, she'll like the card.  I tried to make it as purple as possible since that is her favorite color. 

And I'm so happy there are teachers and coaches like the one who asked my daughter to reconsider.  She was so supportive and understanding of my daughter's fears.  Whether they make it to the finals or not, she and the rest of the team have already learned and accomplished so much. 

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Post-it Easel Card Tutorial

Hi!  Someone had suggested a tutorial for the post-it easel cards I have been making in a couple of my past posts.  So here it is!  These easel cards feature the adorable, lovable TGF Beans!!

Let's get started cause there are a lot of photos!

I made a couple of them!  I know, they are bright!  But I love them bright and cheery!  Glisten Bean is on the left in purple and Shiny Bean is on the right in pink.

Supplies:
11 x 5.25 inch cardstock
5.25 x 5.25 inch cardstock (front of your easel card that you can decorate)
4 x 4 inch cardstock (box for Post-it pad)
3 x 3 inch Post-it note pad
your favorite stamp
pens, velcro (optional)

Score your long cardstock at 5.25 inches, 5.75 inches and 8.25 inches.

After you fold them at the score lines, it should look like this.  Place on the side.

Next, get your 4 x 4 inch piece and score a half inch on all sides.  Then punch a little semi circle on one of the sides.

Fold, then cut the little corners to make into a box.

It should look like this.  Fit your Post-it pad into it.  It will be snug.

When you lay out all the pieces together, it should generally look like this.

When you start decorating your card and are ready to glue/tape the front on, be sure that you only tape/glue that half of the long cardstock!  See above photo.  Lots of times I get so involved and excited about the final project I forget and just tape on the whole front and then can't fold open the easel card!

When it's all decorated, it folds nicely like so.  The finished size when the card is closed is 5.25 x 5.25 inches.  You can play around with the dimensions and adjust things accordingly.  It doesn't have to be this size.

I added a matching gel pen to each card.  I found these packs of gel pens at Walmart for 75 cents!  I added a bit of velcro on the card and around the pen.

 

Thanks for reading!

Mele Kalikimaka

Hi!  Made a little something for TGF's Farm Fresh Friday--Xmas in July challenge.  Well, actually it's not that little.  I used a whole 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock for the base.  Again while I was wandering through blogland, I saw variations on the easel card.  There is the regular easel, then the twisted and a double and even a triple easel card.  So of course I had to try it and I went for the triple one.  I found a tutorial HERE.  I really thought it was the best layout for how I wanted to present my Xmas in July in Hawaii project. 

Now I don't really know yet how I'm even going to mail this to anyone.  Haha.  But I thought it came out pretty cute.

I did some mixing to come up with this Hawaii-ish Anya.  She is a mix of Dress Me Anya and Fleur Anya.  I bought Wardrobe 1 & 2 during the last Farmers Market and found the perfect Aloha clothes for her.

Here's Ian in his matching Aloha clothes!  I used to laugh at the tourists who wore matching clothes when I was a kid but it's kind of cute!  Even the locals do it now!  He is a mix of Oh Boy Ian and Dress Me Ian with the clothes from the wardrobe collection.  And his Santa hat is borrowed from Cheeky Xmas with some added flower soft.

My die cut letters.  The Xmas tree stamps are also from A Cheeky Xmas stamp set.  I thought about creating the shadows behind the letters like Cheryl did HERE but um, too many letters.  And the flowers above Mele are from Lorraine!  She sent me a whole bunch of goodies.  Thank you so much!  Oh, and did you notice the DP there?  It looks like sand with shells and footprints!  So cute and I thought it would be perfect for this layout.

My palm tree.  I must get a palm tree die!  Making the branches are kind of hassles.  I cut them from felt.  The trunk is stamped and wrapped with twine and embellished with green rhinestones (but they look blue here).  I thought about making a Hawaiian Xmas tree but just couldn't get it to look right.  And I have a regular Xmas tree die (from PTI) but thought I'd match the palm trees in the DP behind Anya and Ian too.  During Xmas I always notice this single palm tree that's all decorated with lights when we drive along the freeway.  I always wonder who does that?

Thanks for reading!

Reminder: Yumi and Fumi Handmade Challenge #13

Hello!  Just a quick post to share a little project I made for Yumi & Fumi Handmade Crafts Challenge #13 which is to case ME! 

This is the original project to case. 

I made another one with a school theme.  Thought I could give this to one of my daughter's teachers then realized I should've used their school colors.  Oh well.  I cut Fumi with Messenger Bag out with my new Spellbinders die.  I really like this one.

I also did a little tutorial of this easel card.  If you're interested, please click HERE.  You'll also see the cute project Kim made.  I love the little scene she created.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fairwee Mia Wish

Hi!  Some time ago, I won a little blog candy from Amy Young and yes, I know it's taken me a long time to finally ink up little Fairwee Mia.  But I finally did and created a circle easel card for the following challenges:

Flutter By Wednesdays #191 has an inspiration photo,

All that Scraps Wednesday Challenge is to use a fancy fold,

and Lollipop Crafts Challenge #68 is anything goes.

I used Sweet November stamp Fairwee Mia and also the mushroom from CC Designs.  I used 2 stamps that I haven't inked up before so while I did purchase some digis recently, I'm still trying to get through to all my uninked stamps.  The Wish sentiment is from PTI's Tiny Tags set.

This is how it looks opened.  I used clear cardstock for the front circle so Fairwee Mia can look like she is flying above the mushroom.  Though if you are like my hubby you will ask why is she trying to jump over the mushroom?  Sigh, because she's a fairy with wings and not a tiny little lady trying to jump the mushroom.  Ohhhhh, her wings are too small. Probably cause she's a tiny fairy.  So that was the gist of my conversation over this card with my hubby.  I added the flowers on the inside to hold up the front and they were yellow but I colored them pink (though they look a bit red) to go along with the inspiration photo. 

Both the mushroom and Fairwee Mia are popped up on dimensionals.

A little close up.  Fairwee Mia was fast to color, she's so tiny!  I added some rhinestones, butterflies, glossy accents on the mushroom, stickles, and twine too.

Thanks for reading!

Fairy Dust is a Must

Hi, Hi, Hi!  I'm a little excited to share this project.  Sometimes when I get an idea and it seems so great in my head, I get all excited that I have to drop everything and push aside whatever I'm working on.  Do you get like that too or is it just me?  Anyway, after making that easel card HERE that was all flopping around and couldn't fold flat, I wanted to try again.  I had linked to the original tutorial HERE.  My project is a bit longer but I think it needs that extra length so that it stands nicely and still can fold flat.

This is how it looks folded flat.  It's long at 7 inches.

 

I tied a ribbon onto the front to help keep it closed and keep the front panel from flapping out too much.  I used TGF's clear stamp sets, Bantastic and Fairy Princess.

This is the bottom portion which helps the top to stand.  I stamped one of the banners (the one with the heart) in light pink as the background and stamped the sentiments from Fairy Princess over it. 

This is how it looks opened.  It's kind of busy and there's a lot going on.

Front view.

Side view of the easel and steps.  I made graduated steps so you could see the middle panel a bit more too.  But it is all one long piece of cardstock.  There is also some space to write a message when you flip the top over too.

I made the sun with one of the banners and a circle die too.  I added some rounded banners on pink twine in the back.  I wanted it to seem as if the fairies were putting together the banners in the background.  I added a tiny pink bow that I bought from a store here.  I wonder if someone sits there all day making these bows!  They are so cute but I don't think I could ever make a bow that tiny.

Pink Fairy.  I added stickles on her wings and dress.  There's actually a lot of stickles everywhere on this project!

Blue Fairy is holding one of the banners.  If you look closely you can see that she is mounted onto clear cardstock because I wanted her to look as if she was flying.

Orange Fairy.  She is also holding a banner and mounted on clear cardstock.  I borrowed some yellow glitter glue from my youngest.  He loves his glitter glue when he crafts too.  I had to buy him some after he kept asking to use my stickles!

I did a short little how to in case you wanted to try one too. 

I used 2 pieces of cardstock both 5.5 x 12 inches.

Score one piece at 2.5 and 5 inches.

Then fold it like above.  This is your base.

Score the second piece at 5, 7, 9 and 10.5 inches.  

Fold it like the photo above.  This is the top portion.  You may want to lay it over your base and see where it naturally wants to rest and stand.  I had about 2 inches of the base showing on the bottom and that's where I added my bottom sentiments.  Then just decorate and assemble like a regular easel card.  Hope it works out okay!

I used thin American Crafts cardstock too (in blue) and the pink cardstock is PTI.  The grass die is from MFT and the butterflies from an MS punch.

I'll be entering this in TGF's Monday Fun-day #16 Let's Get Sentimental and Flutter By Wednesday #186 Open challenge.

Sorry, kind of wordy today.  Thanks for reading!