Everything’s Coming Up Daisies

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Gleeson Daisy Design PPA 282

My card today was inspired by the Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge (see the badge below). I have a tendency to follow the sketch exactly. I am working on stretching myself to color outside of the lines and see what I can create. I love the colors of this card and the fresh crisp look of the daisy.

PPA-282-Jan07

I used some retired products and will give you alternatives if you want to recreate the card. I used a piece of Whisper White card stock 5 1/4″ x 4″ and scored on the diagonal every two inches using the Simply Scored Scoring Tool and Diagonal Plate. This is one of those tools that is not talked about enough. I love this tool. Then I cut 1/4″ strips of Night of Navy card stock and glued the pieces on the scored Whisper White card stock. I trimmed off the excess after I had all the pieces on.

Then I added retired Crushed Curry Chevron Ribbon (substitute with Daffodil Delight 1/4″ Cotton Ribbon wrapped twice) adhering to the back with glue dots.

Then I cut the leaves using an old Sizzix die (substitute the leaves from the Bird Builder Punch). The daisy was created by cutting out three flowers from the retired Blossom Party Die. Substitute with the Friends and Flowers stamp set and coordinating Festive Flower Builder Punch. A Crushed Curry button from the Regals Designer Buttons  with Silver Metallic Thread are the finishing touch to the daisy.

Stop by to see what the Pals Paper Arts team is up to.  We have changed up the teams as well as the challenge calendar for 2016. We would love to see your interpretation of the sketch this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle

Gleeson PPA 282 Daisy design

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Happy New Year and Happy New Catalog!

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Since creating my blog in August of 2013 this is the longest I have gone without posting. This holiday season I hit a point of overwhelm and some things needed to take a back seat; like getting time in my craft room and creating blog posts.

So today our sons are back at school and we have officially placed our home on the real estate market. This is a bittersweet decision because we love our home yet the time is right for a transition to a smaller home.

I don’t really like New Year’s resolutions. However I do like thinking about what I want from a new year and how I want to evolve as the year unfolds. Today I want to share a journey that I started for 2016, it is called One Little Word. This is a program created by Ali Edwards where you select a word to be your focus for the year. Find out more about One Little Word here. My word for this year is Create. I will share more as the year unfolds.

The really big news is that today YOU can order from the new Occasions Catalog and the Sale-A-Bration Catalog.

2016 Occasions Catalog

Grab your cup of coffee and click on the covers to begin browsing the pages of these beautiful catalogs.

2016 Sale-A-Bration Catalog

So what is Sale-A-Bration? This is the time of year when Stampin’ Up! provides special products as a reward when we spend $50. You cannot buy anything in the Sale-A-Bration catalog you can only earn them through purchasing other products.

Let me know if you have any questions, I am only an email away.

Michelle

Our Christmas Eve Miracle

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StampinMojo, SU Celebrate Today, Paper Source Birthday Wrapping Paper

Growing Up Christmas Eve was always special and filled with many fun traditions. However 22 years ago, Christmas Eve changed for us. It is the day we had our first son. He came just 26 weeks into my pregnancy. The day he was born the neonatologist told us we just got on a roller coaster ride that may be the scariest we had ever been on. On Christmas morning they told us he was on a jet ventilator to help him breathe (the last resort type of ventilator at the time), and if he did not make it on this ventilator he would not survive. He was christened several hours later. In March 1994, 78 days later we brought him home for the hospital.

Conor turns 22 today. Christmas Eve has become even more special for us. We ALL made it through a very tough time. You can imagine that it is hard to have your birthday on Christmas Eve. We have always tried to make it his day among the Christmas preparations. I used the Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge as my inspiration for his birthday card this year.

PPA 281 Dec 24

I found the fun chalk board Happy Birthday Wrapping Paper at Paper Source. Any one who loves paper needs to check this store out.  I wrapped his present and decided a bright Pacific Point blue ribbon would be perfect.

Now to create the coordinating card. Using the sketch I cut a section of the wrapping paper and mounted it on Crushed Curry card stock. I heat embossed the stars from Celebrate Today stamp set for the balloon using Crushed Curry Embossing Powder (Retired) and cut it out using the SU Balloon Framelits. Then I watercolored the balloon using Pacific Point ink.

StampinMojo, SU Celebrate Today, PPA 281, Birthday card

I love how it coordinates with his gift.

SU Number of Years, StampinMojo, Masculine Birthday card

On the inside I used a NEW stamp set that will be available on January 5th called Number of Years. It has a coordinating set of framelits. I predict this will be a very popular bundle.

Occasions16_p10_2

I think the sentiment is fabulous and perfect for Conor’s birthday card.

So we have two births we celebrate on Christmas Eve. It is a very special day indeed! Enjoy this special time with your friends and families. Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Conor!

Stampin’ Hugs,

Michelle

Please play with the Pals Paper Arts this week. The challenge will remain open for two weeks.

My Christmas Eve Miracle

Products used for this project:

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A Beautiful Beach Wedding

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The calendar is marching by and my to do list continues to be longer than the days. Yet I am trying to enjoy each event and activity this time of year brings.

Saturday we attended the wedding of a colleague. It was a small wedding and we felt honored to be included in the guest list. The couple being married love the water and six months ago returned from a year long trip sailing the caribbean. Many people talk of doing adventures like this but this couple did it. Kim, the bride, journaled their voyage through a blog http://lahowind.com. So it was fitting that their ceremony would take place on the beach. It was a simple, quiet, elegant ceremony.

I wanted their card to reflect the invitation and capture what  they love.

StampinMojo, Michelle Gleeson, Beach Wedding card

I am thrilled with the result. The colors are Lost Lagoon and Very Vanilla. The textured embossing folders are SU Elegant Dots and a Darice embossing folder called Shell Corner. The ribbon is SU Seam Binding Ribbon in Very Vanilla. The sentiment is from Avery Elle, I LOVE the font.

StampinMojo, Michelle Gleeson, Beach Wedding card

The card size is 7 x 3 1/5. I wanted something unique for this special couple. The SU Envelope Punch Board made creating a coordinating envelope a cinch. The Timeless Elegance DSP used for the envelope has tiny shells – perfect!

Beach Wedding Card, Inside Sentiment, StampinMojo

The inside sentiment came from the Big News stamp set. The perfect set for those Big News events.

While I don’t have a photo of the bride and groom I did capture a couple of photos of the special touches the bride put together. Let’s take a look.

Unique Beach Wedding place cards

These cards and starfish sat at each place setting as our place cards. Simple and beautiful.

Beach Wedding Cake

The cake mirrored the chiffon pleats of the bride’s dress. And it was SO yummy.

View from the reception

The Naples sunset from the reception. The exclamation point on a beautiful afternoon and evening.

I hope your holiday plans are coming together. May love fill your heart and homes.

Stampin’ hugs,

Michelle