My Favorite Things

Ribbon Favorites

Hi there!  It's the first of the month (can you believe it's already MAY?!!) and at Papertrey, that means it's time for the Senior Design Team Challenge!  This month, Nichole Heady asked us each to show you our tried and true techniques for how we incorporate ribbon on projects, showing you just how we achieve those go-to ribbon looks that we use most often.  For me, that's pretty much bows and knots.  I love how much a fluffy bow can add to a girly card and how much a simple, flat knot can add to even a more masculine card.  

For today, I created two cards showcasing both of those techniques.  I used the same layout but changed up the colors on each and tied a cheery bow with a button in the center on the baby girl card and I tied a simple knot on the baby boy card.

 

I am STILL in love with this color combo after I don't know how long!  I've been pairing pure poppy, berry sorbet and spring moss together for quite some time now and it never gets old.  And don't you think it's just a DELISH color scheme for a cheery baby girl card??  Who says baby cards have to be pastel??  Not me!  Haha.  

And besides that, what's not to love about little red "peas" in a berry colored pea pod??  FUN!  The pea pod image is from Baby Button Bits and I layered it on a piece of spring moss card stock that I die cut with the mat stack 1 die.  Of course the dots in the background are ones I stamped with Polka Dot Basics II.

 

Another really fun detail about these cards is the sentiment I put together.  I took a stamp from my Signature Greetings set -- "Congrats on your new little bundle", however I didn't ink up the word "bundle".  After I'd stamped the sentiment without the word bundle, I pulled out the "little sweet pea" sentiment from Baby Button Bits.  On that stamp, I didn't ink up the word "little" and instead only stamped "sweet pea".  The result was my new sentiment "Congrats on your new little sweet pea" which worked just perfectly with the sweet pea image I was using on these cards!

 

Here's the baby boy version of the same card.  The buttons on the pea pod are all threaded together with one piece of rustic jute button twine and adhered with glue dots.  Easy peasy!  The dotty paper is one from the Green Boutique patterned paper collection.....just perfect for a baby boy card!

All righty.....so now that I've told you all about the cards themselves, here are a couple of videos for you, showcasing the ribbon techniques I used on these cards.  I've posted these two videos before, but they show you exactly how I tie my bows and knots and how I add buttons to bows, and since that's what we're talking about today, I thought I would just post them here for you again in case you missed them the first time around.

I hope that today's cards and videos have inspired you just a bit to get out those ribbons and do a bit of bow-tying yourselves!

Pop over to Nichole's blog today to see her take on this fun challenge.  All of the other girls on the Senior Design Team will also have posts to share with you today as well as this month's Distinguished Guest Designer, Ashley Newell so don't miss those!

Mish Wooderson
Heather Nichols

Lisa Johnson

Betsy Veldman

Ashley Newell

Thanks so much for stopping by today, Dearies!  Happy weekend!

{Congrats (baby girl) supplies}
Paper: berry sorbet, spring moss, vintage cream, rustic cream
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics II, Baby Button Bits, Signature Greetings
Ink: pure poppy, berry sorbet, spring moss

Other: berry sorbet classic grosgrain ribbon, hibiscus burst/pure poppy buttons, rustic jute button twine, mat stack 1 die, corner chomper

{Congrats (baby boy) supplies}
Paper: hawaiian shores, aqua mist, stamper's select white, green boutique
Stamps: Baby Button Bits, Signature Greetings
Ink: aqua mist, hawaiian shores, spring moss

Other: spring moss classic grosgrain ribbon, new leaf buttons, rustic jute button twine, mat stack 1 die, corner chomper

Hero Arts Thanks

Hi-ya Peeps!!  

It's Thursday and you know what that means!  The weekend is almost here and I can't wait!  This weekend is our annual planting weekend here at the McVey homestead!!  It's one of my favorite weekends of the year!  We'll go to the nursery and load up the SUV with lots and lots of flowers (and tomatoes and a few herbs this year!) and we'll bring 'em all home and plant them!  It's a big job.....an all day event but I looooooooove planting weekend!  Not because I have a clue what I'm doing but because I have a very hard working husband who knows lots about planting and who is patient with me and teaches me more and more about planting and gardening with each passing year.  One of these days, maybe I'll know what I'm doing but in the meantime, I'm perfectly content to follow his lead do what he tells me!  Haha.  (Maybe he won't read that!)  :)  Anyway, our gardening successes are all because of his knowledge, his green thumb and his willingness to water and care for those plants after we get them planted.  I'm pretty blessed to have such a wonderful hubs.  I'll be sure and take lots of pictures along the way so you can share in the fun of planting weekend with us!

In the meantime, here's a vintage-y Thanks card featuring lots of Hero Arts goodies!  They sent me a box of stampy goodness and I couldn't resist pairing up four of their stamps on this card.  The background was stamped with their Ledger rubber clings stamp.  The "Thanks" sentiment and flourishes are all one stamp -- the Thanks For Your Kindness stamp.

 

The fabby flower was created with two different stamps.  The larger one is the Starburst Lace stamp and the smaller one is the Starburst stamp.  I added some Papertrey buttons in pure poppy and berry sorbet to finish off the flower and added a few Hero Arts adhesive pearls to accent the background.

All righty, I'm off to eat some lunch and then spend the afternoon in the studio with my computer.  :)  Got a bit of graphic designing to do.

Take care, sweet friends!

{Thanks supplies}
Paper: PTI berry sorbet, vintage cream
Stamps: Hero Arts - Thanks For Your Kindness, Starburst, Starburst Lace, Ledger 
Ink: PTI pure poppy, berry sorbet, vintage touch tea dye
Other: Hero Arts adhesive pearls, PTI pure poppy/berry sorbet buttons

All CAPS Text in Blog Posts

Just a head's up....I am aware that some of you that are reading my blog in Internet Explorer are seeing all of the text in my blog posts in all caps.  For the record, I have not typed any of these posts in all caps -- I'm certainly not intending to shout at you. Haha!  I'm still typing the posts just like I've always done so I'm not sure what the problem is.  I've contacted Typepad to try to resolve the problem for you.  

Thanks for your patience, in the meantime!

 

So Sweet...

Hello there!  

Happy Wednesday to you!  I've got a happy little thank you card to share with you today.  I started out with the fun dotty pattern that I stamped using Polka Dot Basics II in hawaiian shores ink on vintage cream card stock.  I distressed up the edges with vintage touch tea dye ink and layered it on a kraft card base.  Then, I stamped a diamond pattern from Background Basics: Tin Types in berry sorbet ink on rustic cream card stock and layered that along the bottom of the card with strips of patterned papers from the Dotty Biscotti and Green Boutique collections.  The "thanks so much" sentiment on the bottom of the card is from the Mega Mixed Messages stamp set.

 

I used the adorable cupcake image from Baby Button Bits to paper piece the cupcake together for my focal point.  The dots on the top of the cupcake were also stamped with Polka Dot Basics II.  I punched out the scalloped square with a giga scalloped square punch and rounded the corners at the top and bottom of the card with my corner chomper.  Oh, and of course, the fun little "So Sweet of You" sentiment is from my Signature Greetings stamp set!

That's all for me today.....I've got some design work to tackle in the next couple of days and then it'll be time to start creating projects for the MAY Papertrey release!!  First though today....I must go finish my workout!  Not because I WANT to, mind you, but because it's good for me.  Bleckth.  Haha!  It's all right though.....I've got a good book to keep me company while I'm on the elliptical.  :)

Have a fabulous day, my friends.  Whatever's going on in your corner of the world today, I hope that you can find something to SMILE about.....something to be HAPPY about......something to be GRATEFUL for.  For instance, from where I'm sitting right now at our kitchen table with my trusty laptop, I can look out the windows at my backyard and see the sun shining brightly and that makes me smile.  I can see the puffy purple blooms on our lilac bush and that makes me happy.  I can look over in the family room and see our sweet Riley boy, sound asleep and I know HE'S happy!  Haha.  I can think about my hottie hubs who's away at work right now, but will come home to me this afternoon and we'll have dinner and put our feet up and watch some TV together tonight......and all of that makes me grateful.  I could go on and on, but I won't.  Instead, I'll just ask......what about YOU?

Thanks for popping in to visit me today, Dearies.

Smooches!
 

P.S.  If you're reading this in Google Reader or the like and haven't popped in to my actual blog for awhile, you might want to do so.  I've spruced up the side bars a bit and have added quite a few pages and links that you might want to check out!  ;)

{So Sweet of You supplies}
Paper: kraft, vintage cream, rustic cream, berry sorbet, hawaiian shores, dotty biscotti, green boutique
Stamps: Signature Greetings, Polka Dot Basics II, Mega Mixed Messages, Baby Button Bits, Background Basics: Tin Types
Ink: dark chocolate, hawaiian shores, berry sorbet, vintage touch tea dye
Other: berry sorbet button, rustic jute button twine, berry sorbet topnotch twill, giga scalloped square punch, corner chomper  

 

 

Hey There

  

Hey There, Peeps!  

I've got a bright and cheery card to share with you today!  I used several fun stamp sets on this one.  I started with Polka Dot Basics II.  I seriously think that if you can't seem to find your mojo, start out by stamping some fun polka dots in different colors!  I bet you'd be surprised at how the ideas start flowing!  

So anywho, I stamped some dots in True Black ink on a piece of vintage book print that I pulled from my trusty old children's storybook (my 99 cent Goodwill Store find) and adhered it to a Hawaiian Shores card base.  I added a strip of summer sunrise card stock that I scalloped with the medium scallop border die and then I added a skinny strip of raspberry fizz card stock that I stamped with the "You've Been On My Mind" sentiment from Big & Bold Wishes.

I used the mat stack 1 die to die cut the label shape and then stamped it with Background Basics: Woodgrain using raspberry fizz ink.  The "Hey There" sentiment is also from Big & Bold Wishes and I stamped it right over the woodgrain pattern using True Black ink.  I adhered it to the card front with foam adhesive and finished off the card with some summer sunrise buttons, threaded with rustic jute button twine and adhered to the top of the label with glue dots!

It's a pretty easy card to make but the bright and cheery colors pack a powerful punch!

I hope you're having a great day!  Today is our sweet Riley boy's 10th birthday!  (our dog)  He's currently sacked out on his blanket, enjoying a birthday nap!  :)

Chat soon!!

{Hey There supplies}
Paper: hawaiian shores, summer sunrise, raspberry fizz, vintage book print
Stamps: Background Basics: Woodgrain, Big & Bold Wishes, Polka Dot Basics II
Ink: true black, raspberry fizz
Other: mat stack 1 die, medium scallop border die, summer sunrise buttons, rustic jute button twine 

Australia - In Photos!

 

Hellooooooo Dear Friends!!  

I am so THRILLED to have finally finished sorting thru all of the photos from our trip to Australia last month!!  They're sorted, they're uploaded and they're ready to share with you!!  If you'd like to see photos from our trip and read about our animal adventures, our foodie discoveries and all of the fun we had Down Under, then check out our Australia photo album.  For future reference, it's easily located over in the right hand side bar here at the blog-o -- just scroll down a bit and you'll see it right above our other photo albums.  For now though, if you'd like you can....

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR AUSTRALIA TRIP PHOTO ALBUM!!!

Once you've opened the album, you can click on each photo to see it in full view and to read the captions.

I hope you enjoy the photos.  I picked out the best of the best to share with you here......so many fun pictures!  There are quite a few for you to see so grab a cuppa, get comfy and enjoy!  

Thanks for coming along on this little journey with us.  

Happy viewing!

 

Lilac Lovelies

Hello there, Sweets.  How are you today?  I'm doing quite well.  I've buckled down the last two days and gotten ALL of the Australia trip photos edited and ready to post.  (Hallelujah!!)  Now I just need to get them all uploaded to the blog-o and get all of the captions typed in below each picture so you'll know what each photo is.  It's all quite a job but SO worth it once they're all posted for everyone to see.  I can't wait! 

For today, I thought I'd share a few photos of the lovely lilacs in our back yard.  Is there a more beautiful scent than that of the lilac???  OH, how I love it so.  And don't even get me started on their spectacular color!  You KNOW how I feel about color!  LOVE.  

 

Seriously, lilacs are flowers that make me so grateful for my senses.  Grateful that I can see and grateful that I can smell.  There's just nothing like them and each year when the lilac bush begins to bloom, I get so excited to take a stroll out into the yard just so I can catch a whiff of their yumminess.  

 

Bart just got home a bit ago and I can't wait to officially get our weekend underway!  We went out to dinner last night so tonight, we're planning to stay IN.  A quiet night at home......just the two of us (and Riley, of course)......don't you love quiet nights at home?  I'm thinking we might just put our feet up and watch a movie!

I'll be working on uploading the trip photos this weekend so hopefully they'll all be posted soon.  In the meantime, I hope that you ENJOY your weekend.  Ours is supposed to be full of rain, rain and more rain but for the moment, the sun is shining and I for one intend to ENJOY it!  Even when it rains, we can still have a great weekend.  It just gives us the perfect excuse to cozy up indoors and enjoy a little down time, right?  :)  

Rain or shine, I hope that you ENJOY your weekend, dear friends!

Much love,

 

"Sprite", the Koala ;)

 

How about a few koala pictures for today?  Because really, who doesn't love koalas?!!

This is me with "Sprite", the koala.  You know....Sprite, like a little fairy.  She was super light weight -- maybe 10 lbs. and I LOVE her.  Can I keep her?  Please?  Pretty please?  

The look on my face cracks me up.  I was practically giddy!  Just look at that little beauty.......I felt like I was 7 years old again and completely in love with KOALAS!!

When we were in Australia last month, one of the many highlights of our trip was going to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where if you pay to have a picture taken with a koala, they will let you hold the koala for a couple minutes and BONUS - they'll also let you take as many photos as you want with your own camera!!  Supposedly Lone Pine is the only place in the state that will allow you to actually hold the koalas these days and in my mind it was MORE than worth the $16 photos we bought to get to hold this little beauty.  Just look at my face up there.....I was in total AWE!  In my entire lifetime, I've probably only ever seen a couple of koalas at the zoo and let's face it, they sleep 19 hours a day, so even if we got to see one, it was almost a certainty that it'd be asleep so being able to see SO many koalas at Lone Pine (they have 130+ koalas) and then on top of that, actually getting to HOLD one?????  Total awe.  One of the highlights of our travels EVER.

 

Now in this photo, you'll notice that Sprite has now snuggled her head up next to my chin.  I kissed her head and now have my chin resting on her head.  I had nearly died and gone to Heaven at this point.  Hahaha.

 

Here is Bartley w/Sprite.  I'll have to see if I can scan the professional photos we bought to share them with you as well.  Their photographer took great pictures of Bart and I both.

The great thing about Lone Pine is that since they have so many koalas, they rotate them so that no koala is held more than 30 minutes a day.  We can attest to that fact, as the whole time we were waiting in line, they rotated thru several koalas, so no one is "overworked".

 

The park had the one area where you go to hold them, but it was FULL of other little semi-enclosures that you could walk right up to and see the koalas in their trees up close and personal.  Look how close I got to this little guy!  I'm NOT using a zoom lens here!  Most of them were hanging out in their trees sleeping and the funniest was when one would doze off and lose his balance and all of a sudden, jerk awake to keep from falling out of the tree!  Ha.  

 

This little guy got down out of his tree and decided to walk around for a bit.  When they would come down out of the trees, sometimes they'd come right over to us and let us reach down and pet them.  Like I said before, in my lifetime I've pretty much only ever seen them asleep and way up in a tree, so to be SO close to SO many of them and to see them eating and walking around and well, just MOVING, well it was just FASCINATING.  I'm so, SO glad we got to go to Lone Pine!!  {Thank you, John & Lynn, for driving us out there!}

Thought I'd share these sneak peek Aussie trip photos just to show you that YES, I've been editing photos and they're coming soon!!  There are even more pictures from Lone Pine -- koalas aren't the only animals they have there.  Can't wait to share more with you!

Have a FAB Tuesday, my dear friends.  I've got a bit of work to knock out in the studio today, but don't you worry about me.  I've got Riley boy to keep me company, as well as my Anne of Green Gables DVD and a cozy cup of mocha nut fudge coffee.  Have I told you how much I love my job??  ;)

Take care,

 

Papertrey Anniversary Set - {Spoiler Alert!}

Hey there, Peeps!  I'm posting this note at the top of this post to warn you that this post contains peeks at the new Anniversary Set that Papertrey is sending (for free!) to all of it's customers that ordered 12 or more stamp sets in 2009.  It's a beauty of a set but I know that some of you that are waiting on your free set to arrive, would like to be surprised about what it looks like and therefore don't want to see any sneaks ahead of time.  I would hate to be the one to spoil your surprise, so consider yourself warned! 

In the meantime, how about a picture of me feeding a kangaroo in Australia.....you know, to give you time to look away if you don't want to see the card photos!  Ha.

 

And now......bring on the cards!

 

Papertrey's anniversary set this year is called Round & Round and it is SOOO much fun to play with!  I loooove it!  Lots of great sentiments in a great font combination -- very versatile, great images and a GREAT large label shape that is conveniently sized to hold ANY 1 3/4" circle images, of which there are TONS in Papertrey's stamp collection, so you can pair this set with images from LOTS of other stamp sets for even more versatility!  And my favorite part is that the label shape from Round & Round also coordinates with the new Mat Stack 1 die!  

On this first card, I die cut the label shape with the Mat Stack 1 die from ripe avocado card stock and then stamped the great scrolly label shape.  Then, I stamped one of the 1 3/4" circle images from Round & Round - a cute bird on a branch image - with Hawaiian Shores ink and punched it out with a 1 3/4" circle punch and popped it on the label shape with foam adhesive.  I finished off the label shape with a couple of ripe avocado buttons.

 

My card base is Hawaiian Shores card stock and the patterned paper is my favorite from the Green Boutique collection.  I stamped the sentiment with ripe avocado ink on rustic cream card stock and stitched it to the card front along with the patterned paper.  
 
 

 

One of you asked if I would be sharing the card I made to take to the wedding we attended over the weekend.  This is it!  I coordinated the colors on my card with the colors on the wedding invitation they sent us!  I love doing this.....making a card that coordinates with the wedding invitation is a special way to show the bride that you care -- by taking the time to make a card in colors that she loves.  

On this card, the focal image I chose to stamp inside the beautiful frame image is a butterfly and leaves.  I also stamped the single butterfly image from Round & Round, cut it out and layered it over the top of the larger butterfly in the circle.  The "Best Wishes" sentiment is from Round & Round and the "Congratulations" sentiment is from Enjoy the Ride.

 

The dotted background is also a stamp included in Round & Round and I added a couple of flourishes to my card base from the Fancy Flourishes set.

Can you see just how pretty the Round & Round stamp set is?  And how truly versatile?  I can't wait to use this set again and again!

I hope you have a fantastic day, Dearies!

Toodles,

Goin' to the Chapel...

Hellooooooo there!  I couldn't resist sharing about our day yesterday!  I told you yesterday morning that we were headed to a wedding in the afternoon....some friends of our family were getting married.  The wedding was in the ADORABLE chapel in the photo above -- seriously, how picturesque is that?  

I also told you that my Dad was the pastor performing the ceremony.  You'll want to keep that in mind as I tell you this next story!  First, I have to give you a little background.  When my sister, Diann, had her first baby (Ally), my other siblings and I decided that it'd be funny to teach the baby to call my Dad "Sugar Pops"!  Of course, as with any family when the first grandbaby comes along, the grandparents have to figure out what they want to be called and in our case, my Mom was fine with "Grandma" and my Dad said he honestly didn't have a preference so we kept up with the Sugar Pops bit and it kind of stuck!  LOL.  Except now that my sister has TWO babies, the kids have shortened it to "Pops".  Totally cute, right?  So now you're caught up......we now return to yesterday's story.

The chapel in the photo above was very small and the way the room was set up, there was only one center aisle to get to the front of the chapel.  I was sitting right on the aisle w/Ally, my 2 year old niece, on my lap.  At the start of the wedding, my Dad (the pastor) and the Groom walked down the aisle right past us, to wait at the front of the chapel for the bride and the rest of the bridal party.  Just as Dad walked by us the room began to quiet and, Ally reached out her hands to my Dad and said, "Ho-me, Pops!" which translates to "Hold me, Pops" which is what she says when she wants you to pick her up and hold her!!!  Besides just being funny, it was seriously CUTE!!  Dad later told us that he didn't hear her as he was concentrating on the wedding, however you can be sure that EVERYone sitting around us did and man, it was soooo hard not to laugh out loud at that one!!  

I'm fairly certain that we'll be telling the "Ho-me, Pops" story for years to come!!

 

Here's the little dollie w/me -- "Auntie Dawn".  I also told you yesterday that when we were with the kids just a couple weeks ago, she thought Bart's name was "Auntie Bart"!  Well, I'm happy to report that he's gotten a promotion.  She now calls him "Buncle Bart"!!  LOL!!!  I'm sitting here literally laughing out loud all by myself thinking about it again.  As for Bart, he's fine with Buncle -- he says it's better than being an aunt!  ;)

 

Here's a shot of my Daddy-o during the ceremony.  I was so proud of him.  He did such a great job and it was so fun/weird to be at a wedding where my Dad was performing the ceremony.  This wasn't his first wedding at all, but it was our first time to see him perform one.

 

There was a bit of time between the wedding and the reception where they needed to set up tables and such for the dinner they were serving, so they asked us all to wait outside for just a few minutes while they prepared the room for us.  I couldn't resist taking a few more pictures while we waited.  "Buncle Bart" and Baby Ally (who I do realize isn't really a baby anymore, but I'm not quite ready to stop calling her that yet!).....and she's holding her new Strawberry Shortcake doll that we brought her, to give her something new to play with {to distract her!} during the ceremony.  

 

Seriously........isn't she the cutest EVER?  Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pics of her younger brother, Malachi (age 1).  He's a busy little man who hasn't quite learned the art of posing for the camera yet, like his big sister.  Hee.

 

She reeeeally wanted to sit NEXT to "Buncle Bart" and then she had to let Strawberry Shortcake sit on her other side.  *smile*

 

Here she is with Uncle Dave (my brother).  They were playing a clapping game.  So cute.

 

And Uncle Dave also happened to be the one to grab her just as she was heading out on the dance floor to join the bride!  LOL!  So here they are "dancing" together.

 

Sleepy girl.....you can see it in her eyes.  She'd had a long day, but the kids were both so good.  This photo of her just melts my heart.  I love those "babies" like they were my own and I'm so, so glad that we got to spend the day with them yesterday.  Being an auntie really is a great job!

Sorry to subject you to so many "baby" pictures today, but who can resist a face like that?  And in case you were wondering, YES her eyes really are that blue!

Hope you're thoroughly enjoying your Sunday, Friends.

We're definitely enjoying ours.

Much love,