Thank you to all the teachers!

School is just about out around here! We are so ready for a break in the routine! And we are really ready for warmer days ahead!

But first, it is so important to thank the amazing people who dedicate their lives and career to training up our children. We have been amazingly blessed with teachers who, when they say, "I love your children," leave little doubt to their sincerity. And I am so thankful. It's always hard to know the right teacher gift. Especially when time and/or money come into play. This year I enlisted some help from a friend who sewed coffee cozies for me. You should check her talent out HERE. Everything she makes is absolutely adorable! She made a purse for me last year and I and still loving it! 

Even if you are not a coffee drinker, everyone at some point seems to find themselves at Starbucks with a friend. You'll find Mike and I drinking the tea, thank you very much. And if I'm splurging, I might grab a brownie to go along with it. Yum! So, along with the coffee cozies we added a Starbucks gift card. It was simple, but the cards and tags were homemade (with a little help from a recent My Paper Pumpkin kit!) - with notes inside from the kids - and hopefully it will be a small gesture to show these teachers just how much they mean to us. We will sure miss them!

Perpetual Calendar

I have a fun little project to share with you today! We used the Perpetual Birthday Calendar Kit for our Stamp Club project this month. What a fun time! And what a great idea! It's perfect if you are a card-giver, like me. I keep track of birthdays in my Google calendar and I set reminders for a week ahead so I have time to make and send a card. But being able to see a month at a time is going to be such a help - and what a pretty way to do it! I'll be able to better plan my card-making by seeing at a glance just how many cards I'll be needing. This project would also be a great gift for any moms or grandmothers or other card-senders in your life. They will *love* this! So, I thought I'd share my samples to get you going. The directions are really simple and you can just follow the ones that come with the kit.

Perpetual Birthday Calendar Kit

#137950 $15.95

Or you can go another step further and use the coordinating stamp set:

Perpetual Birthday Calendar Photopolymer Stamp Set

#137167 $23.95

And you can get even more creative and come up with your own ideas, use some of mine or explore Pinterest!

Mother's Day Fun

I had fun creating a couple new projects for Mother's Day last week. 

This first project was an exfoliating scrub my daughter helped me make for my mom. We gave her this scrub and took her out for an evening of shopping and dinner. What a fun girls night!

I got the "recipe" for the scrub at Joanna Gaines' blog here. I also shared the recipe below. I did change it up a little bit. We didn't have any grapefruit on hand, so I just used one orange. I didn't have any grapefruit oil, so I used DoTerra's Wild Orange Oil instead. I *loved* how it turned out and will definitely be making more! It felt so good on my hands - I even could tell they were softer the next day. This would also be good to use on your lips since everything is edible. Cool!

Citrus Exfoliating Scrub

Ingredients:

½ C coconut oil

½ C white sugar (or baking soda for a

            gentler scrub)

Zest of ½ grapefruit

Zest of ½ orange

1 T. grapefruit juice OR approx. 25 drops

            of grapefruit oil

Directions:

Place the firm coconut oil and white sugar (or baking soda) in a stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix together on low speed until thick. Add the grapefruit zest, orange zest and grapefruit juice (or grapefruit oil) to the mixture. Stir until all ingredients are mixed well and then store in a glass jar. Be sure to keep it refrigerated when not in use.

I gave mom the fold-out mini scrapbook card I shared a few days ago, but I wanted to make a special card for a friend of mine who was celebrating her first Mother's Day. I have absolutely fallen in love with the Mother's Love stamp set! Look how beautiful this card turned out! And it was easy to throw together, too!

Mother's Love Photopolymer Stamp Set (also available in Wood or Clear Mount)

#137170 $24.95

I used Aqua Painters with Soft Sky ink to create the background.

Aqua Painters

#103954 $16.95

April Stamp Club

We squeezed our April Stamp Club meeting in just under the wire last night. I was pretty excited about the projects we made. We learned to make the Twist Turn card and a Foldout Mini Scrapbook/Card. 

I have to give credit where it's due. I got the idea for the Mini Scrapbook from Katie's Nesting Spot. She created a digital version and I loved it so I thought I would figure out how to make a version using stamps and paper.

I am always keeping my eye out for fun new ways to create cards so we can learn them at our Club meetings. I knew this would be a fun card to try when I saw Dawn's video on her blog, Dawn's Stampin' Thoughts.

Mini Scrapbook Envelope Fold-out

You can totally take this idea and run with it! I started out making an envelope using the Envelope Punch Board sized for a 4" x 4" card. You could easily change the size up. If you make the envelope sized for a 3" x 3" card you could score a 12" x 3" piece of DSP every 3" instead of 4" like I did and get 4 panels to fold out. You can also decide what goes on each panel. Change it up! Journal on one, add a picture on another.

This picture shows the under side of the fold-out DSP. The third panel is what attaches the DSP to the envelope. 

1.       Cut paper to size for desired album. I sized it to hold a card that would be 4”x4”. Follow the directions on the Envelope Punch board to create the envelope.

2.       Score the 12”x4” Designer Series Paper at 4” and 8”. Adhere inside envelope.

3.       Add embellishments to fold-out pages as desired.

4.       Fold up inside album. Fold left and right flaps in first.

5.       Punch holes for brads on top flap and bottom flap.

6.       Tie Baker’s Twine around top brad before inserting it into the flap. Close bottom and top flap and wrap twine around brads to close.

7.       You may also decorate the outside of the mini scrapbook if you desire. The back side it the perfect canvas for another layout.

Twist Turn Card

I did type out instructions for this card, but it is very hard to explain without really detailed, step by step pictures or a good video. I would recommend watching Dawn's video. You will love her!