Happy Everything "Twined" Card

I must be going for a record.  I went on for weeks without posting anything, and now I'm up to post #3.  In one day.

My only excuse is, I had some time today, and inspiration struck.  Don't you love it when it happens?

I've been loving clean and simple (CAS) cards lately (please don't get me wrong -- I love me some embellisments, too!), but there is something visually appealing about all that "white" space.

I came across the "Less Is More" challenge blog, and now I've found a great reason to make clean and simple cards.

The challenge this week (Week 143) is to make card using string or twine.

Here is my entry to the challenge:

I used Stampin' Up's butterfly punch on a piece of white cardstock, and stamped the butterfly antennae (Butterfly Prints, Stampin' Up) and the sentiment "Happy Everything" (Hero Arts) in Tuxedo Black (Memento).  Then I wrapped turquoise twine on the card base, and used Stampin' Dimensionals to adhere my white layer to the base.  Lots and lots of dimensionals, to make sure everything is held securely in place.

I also made a coordinating envelope:

The stamped butterfly image on the envelope is from Stampin' Up's Flight of the Butterfly stamp set, in Tempting Turquoise.  The antennae is from Butterfly Prints stamp set, again, from Stampin' Up.

There are so many great entries -- please check them out here.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

DIY Smurfs Costume

Two posts in 24 hours!

I had planned to use r's Bamm Bamm costume for his school parade and party, but it's gotten much colder these past few days, that I was worried that r may get cold today.

So, I had to come up with a Plan B.

Plan B needs to be simple, and made of clothing that we already have on hand.  It also needs to be comfortable, since r will need to wear it for most of the day.  I browsed through photos on the Internet, and saw this costume:

Photo credit:  www.buycostumes.com

This is what I came up with:

I took a blue long-sleeved onesie, a white pair of pants, and white sneakers, all of which r already had.

The only thing I had to make, was the Smurf hat.

I measured one of r's baseball caps, to make sure that the hat will fit.  I drew an outline of the hat on white felt, making sure that the base was a few centimeters bigger than r's head (to make room for stitching).  I sewed around the outline, leaving the base open, of course.  I hemmed it up just to make a finished look. :)  Being new to sewing, I was a little worried about this Smurf hat idea, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I think that's it.  I'm all done with Halloween for now. :p

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

Halloween Treat "Pumpkins"

Halloween is finally here!

I've been planning and planning for Halloween for weeks -- nothing major, just costumes, and treat bags.  As much as I would love to host a party to have an excuse to make cute and yummy Halloween treats, I couldn't because of time and health issues.  R had been fighting off this awful cough and cold for the past two months, and his doctor believes it's a bug.  Well, the bug jumped ship to r and me, and he has croup, and I have the adult version of it (if there is such a thing).

Since r's classmates are under 18 months old, I had to be creative with their treat bags.  The bag should be visually appealing, and the treats should be what they can safely eat (read:  store-bought, nut-free).

Take a look.

Inside each treat bag is a pack of goldfish crackers (cheese), goldfish crackers (vanilla, fudge brownie, or s'mores), vanilla wafers, and a cereal bar.  I wanted to include a small bottle of 100% fruit juice for babies, but it won't fit in the bag.  Boo.

The pumpkins are orange paper bags from Michael's.  I stamped a jack-o-lantern face in black ink on the front of the bag.

The green leaves were made with 4x5 pieces of green cardstock folded in half, and punched with a Fiskars punch.

I taped this to the bag, and attached a green ribbon for the handle.  I attached a tag saying "Trick or Treat" and then "To/From."

All the stamps I used were from Papertrey Ink.

All parents/families are invited to r's school's Halloween parade, and then to the class party later.  We're bringing these treat bags for r's classmates.

I hope they like these.  And I hope you do, too.
Happy Halloween!

My First Sewing Project

I have never sewn anything before, and I can't explain why I decided to make my first sewing project a big one.

To celebrate our niece's first birthday, my sister-in-law hosted a costume party last Saturday.  All the guests were asked to come in costume (including the adults).  So, in true Stamped by C fashion, I decided to take a big bite of the sewing bug, by sewing our costumes.  

Yup.  Costumes for me, R, and r.  Go big or go broke, right? :p

Coming up with the idea for the costumes was the easy part.  r is in that fun, exploring age, when he's enjoying lugging around his bigger toys, and laughing over them making that big "THUD" when he drops them.  The Flintstones -- or specifically, the Rubbles family -- were our natural choice.

Here are our costumes:

This is R's costume, who is of course, Barney Rubble.  I made his costume out of brown twill fabric.  I used his t-shirt for my pattern, chopped off the sleeves, and extended then cut the hem to make his costume.  For the "X," I used black ribbon.  I used the same black ribbon to accent the costume.  I attached the ribbons to the twill using fabric glue.  For his club, I drew a rough pattern on felt, and stuffed it with Polyfil.  I accented the handle of the club using kitchen twine.

This is my costume, as Betty Rubble.  I made it out of cotton interlock.  I made a simple tube dress, laced black ribbon through the neckline.  The white "shell" was made out of polymer clay (another first for me).

Lastly, this is r's Bamm Bamm costume.  I cheated a little bit with this, since I chose to use his white onesie, and orange pants and hat, which I bought from the store.  I modified the pants and the hat by gluing black spots made out of black ribbon that I cut up.  The brown sash was made with a strip of felt.  His club was made out of felt, also stuffed with Polyfil, and accented the handle with kitchen twine.  The bone was made out of polymer clay, too.

I chose to make our costumes instead of buying them, because r will be running around at the party, and we all wanted to be comfortable while chasing him around.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!