Crafting Innovators: The Crafty Lemon

A very special friend of mine (one of my daughter's BFF from high school) is quite the crafty person. Amanda (yes, she shares the same name my daughter has...and yes, that has created some confusion over the years! HA!) has left her job recently in corporate America to pursue her passion and dream.  A year or so ago she founded a craft club in her neighborhood where the neighbor kids could come for crafting and to also learn about other things (like nutrition) in a fun way.

Amanda has created a line of natural health and beauty products which funds her craft club(s).Her venture is called The Crafty Lemon and you can see it HERE  and shop HERE.  Cool idea! Amanda sells a great line of lip balms made with good and wholesome ingredients.  Why would you put icky chemicals on your lips like some of the big name lip balm companies when you can use natural and organic products.  A. NO. Brainer.

Anyway she dropped by today to give me a sample which I'm going to take on an upcoming trip!  I just tried it out and my lips feel like silk! SMOOCH!

And, Amanda...being the crafty thing she is cut this packaging with her Silhouette:

 It perfectly holds the lip balm and she has successfully used it as a mailer!
There are three sides to it...here are the other two:

When opened the lip balm was wrapped in matching blue tissue paper.

Once opened you see the lip balm.  The label has art work which was done by kids of the craft club.

Isn't that cute?

I think what Amanda is trying to do is awesome.  She would like to set up chapters in other neighborhoods...she wants many children to have the opportunity to craft and express themselves through creativity.

This is all so wonderful I thought I needed to share!

Happy Crafting!

A Blast from the Past

As I was cleaning up some scraps of paper the other day I came across this embossed vellum card front which took me back to a time long gone.  This era was the "Susan Loves Embossing Era" and was pre-Cuttlebug, Big Shot, Vagabond, Caliber Eras (almost back to the Ice Age!).  This era was characterized by brass embossing templates, styluses and light boxes and all of the embossing was done by hand.  And way back when...my favorite place for the brass plates and embossing supplies was Lasting Impressions.  Oh, how I loved those templates.

Now I know that these templates can be used in our fancy schmancy embossing machines but I just haven't done that yet.  I'll have to try because, of course, I never got rid of my beloved templates.

By the way...way back when Lasting Impressions also had computer software where you could print out a design and then put it on your light box and emboss.  That's exactly what I did here on the card front I mentioned above:

 I printed out the design on vellum and then put it on my light box and did the embossing.  You can't see it here much but it is embossed.  So it was fun for me to use something I made a very long time ago....I was sort of happy to come across this!

Happy Crafting!

Daddy and Us

I came across a very cute little file in the Silhouette online store.  It is actually a card designed by Suzanne Cannon and looked like this:

I thought it was really cute...with the cutout shoes and decided to personalize it for my son in law from his 3 little ones.  I changed the orientation of the card and added in two more pairs of shoes sized to represent my grandchildren.  I backed with blue and pink paper (2 boys, 1 girl, of course!).
After it was done I decided it was just too "meh" for me so cut the panel and used it as a card front on a mat and base.  It just needed a little more pizzazz for me.  Instead of cutting out Daddy and Me...or Daddy and Us in this case I stamped with some Paper Smooches stamps I had on hand.

The card is approximately 6.5 by 5 (or something like that) so when done I made an envelope with the We R Memory Makers Envelope Punch Board.
My daughter will get her three to "sign" their names....and will give it to him for Father's Day which is coming soon. 
That's it for today.
Happy Crafting!

Another Happy Birthday Card!

My daughter celebrated her birthday this week.  I'm not even going to mention how old she is! It's scary....but I do keep reminding myself I had her when I was 12 so I can't be as old as it must look to others! LOL!

Anyway, I made this card with the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit for June which I adore! It has the really coolest little metal die with it that says "Smile" and is inside a circle.  So very wonderful!  I used it to make a little shaker element.  The stitched circle is also from Simon Says Stamp.

Here is the card kit which, of course, is already sold out...but individual elements like the cute die and stamp set are still available:
I also love the pretty and cheerful Doodlebug papers.

Here is my card:

 Such a fun and happy card, I think.  I love those bright colors!

Here is a closer look to the shaker part:

And that's it for today!
Hope everyone enjoys beautiful sunshine today...can take time to SMILE and keep on crafting!

Birthdays, Birthdays!

This is a week for birthdays for us. Tomorrow my sweet little, adorable and a little goofy granddaughter turns 4.  These last 4 years have gone by so quickly...scary how the time flies!
I made her this little card with a Penny Black stamp set called "Mimi in Paris".  Taylor loves animals so I thought she'd like this little one with a puppy on it.

I stamped the images on white cardstock and then masked them so that I could use some distress inks to make the background. I also punched some clouds out with masking tape and used those on my sky.

I used mostly my new Chameleon pens to color with a little Copic coloring thrown in.  I find the Copics challenging to get nice blending like the pros but the Chameleons which are supposed to be much easier to use were not for me! LOL! I need lots of practice.  But I don't think Taylor will notice my less than perfect coloring.
And then I used some liquid applique for the puffy stuff on the little poodle.  I finished off with some clear Wink of Stella to add a little fun and glittery sheen.

Happy Birthday, Taylor!
And Happy Crafting!

Oh, and I entered this in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge which you can read about HERE.