Baby Shower Fun!

Whew... remember that whirlwind weekend I mentioned? Well, here are a few photos from the fun fun baby shower at my house this past Sunday.

Look at that adorable momma-to-be! We just had to pick the cute Pottery Barns owls off of their baby registry as gift, and I just couldn't resist making the invites & card to all coordinate with the cute owls & birds & trendy trees they're using as their nursery theme.

Coming soon... what could these be?!?

.. a hint, it's a very easy, very cute & very affordable way to show someone you care...


Have a great day! :)

celebrate!

Though the grounds here are covered in snow again, it's time to start dreaming of the pastel and bright colors soon to be all around us. The arrival of spring & summer also brings the arrival of prime house-buying time, so here's a quick & easy example of something YOU can make. Tie it onto a bottle of wine or a homemade candle and you are armed with the perfect thoughtful gift for any housewarming party.

This card uses one of the cute new little houses and the trees from Stampin' Up!'s Good Neighbors set. Paired with the matching Good Neighbors Designer Series Paper, it literally only took a few minutes to put together! Did I mention I got the stamp set & paper for free?! My loyal followers know that while quality is very important to me, I can't pass up free stuff either, so when quality & free combine... I am in heaven.

TIP: Use your markers to color in the houses & roofs to emphasize different parts of the stamped image, like I did with the heart on the house's door.

You can make it, too!
Supply list:
- Good Neighbors Stamp Set & coordinating Good Neighbors Design Series Paper
- "Celebrate" stamp (another free Sale-a-bration stamp) from the A Little Birthday Cheer set.
- Whisper White cardstock base & coordinating Whisper White grosgrain ribbon
- Scallop circle punch
- Earth Elements markers
- Don't forget your matching envelope! I used amazingly soft & luxurious Whisper White envelope and used the same Good Neighbors trees to make it coordinate with the card.

Have fun!

Whirlwind Weekend!

Wow, what a fun weekend!!

There were 9 of us at the Corbin Art School on Saturday morning and we were having so much fun making cards that the quiet watercoloring class across the hall came over and asked if we could close the door!! Hahaha, sorry we disturbed them, but I'm so glad we were having so much fun and there was so much laughter and good crafting going on in our beautiful space. THANK YOU to everyone who participated.

I'll post pictures of our cards soon so everyone can see, but for now, I leave you with the cute little tag picture above. This stamp was a big hit with the people in class on Saturday, so I wanted to show another way to use it with the tag punch to make a cute little gift tag.

Thanks for visiting & check back soon for more pictures & ideas!!

Happy Bird/Robin/BirthDAY!!

When I saw the new Picture This hostess stamp set and all of the cute little sayings, I knew I had to have it.

The new Happy *bird* Day! stamp is absolutely perfect for today... my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday, Robin! I colored in the little birdie so that it could look like a Robin bird. So, she can choose to read it Happy *Bird* Day... Happy *Robin* Day or even the more traditional Happy Birthday. Get it!??! I thought it was clever anyway :) and I hope she likes it!




The cute little clouds were another freebie (have I mentioned how much I love free stuff??) from the Good Neighbors Sale-a-bration stamp set and the whole card is supposed to look sort of like a birthday present wrapped with a beautiful Real Red bow.

Happy *Bird* Day, Robin!!

Smiles & hugs,

I love you more than... fish?!?

Before I move on to St. Patrick's Day and other fun spring cards, I just have to have to share with you these Valentine's Day surprises.

First off, a special thank you to my little friend Sophia for this Valentine's Day gift:







Sophia is the daughter of one of my Stamp Club members and brought me this cute little treat. She worked with her mom to make 30 special homemade treats similar to this for her class. Isn't that great?? What a fun little activity for them to do together & a way to really give something special.


Next off... (do people say "next off?" or even "first off"? maybe it's just "first of all" ... hmmm I'm not sure really now that I think of it). Anyway, next off, is this special puppy love Valentine's Day card and treats.





This is the card our kitty gave to our neighbor/Stamp Club members' dog. (Hi, Lauren!) It was love at first sight for these two cuddly little friends so it was only appropriate for our kitty to tell her puppy boyfriend...




I love you more than.... fish! Sometimes, that is the sweetest Valentine message one can hope to receive on the holiday of love. (Sorry the pic is a little blurry, but I already gave away the card so can't really take another picture very easily).


All of the stamps I used in the Valentine above are free free free right now during Sale-a-bration. Yippee!!

Smiles,

Excuse me, but are you following me?

For all of you loyal *Homemade Smiles* fans out there (hello? echo... echo...) I just added the *follow* option on the left. If you're out there, please click on it to let me know you enjoy the site!

Also, heads up that more project ideas are coming soon... I promise! I spent part of the weekend making a huge variety of St. Patrick's Day cards, many of which involve ZERO stamps and probably supplies you already have on hand.

Check back in the next day or two for the first St. Patty's Day design!


Smiles,

A little Valentine's Day Card History

I ran across this today that I thought was pretty interesting about the first Valentine's Day cards. I guess we're on the right track making our own homemade valentine's!

Rather than purchase a ready-made valentine, Victorian men and women often assembled original valentines from materials purchased at a stationer’s shop: lace, bits of mirror, bows and ribbons, seashells and seeds, gold and silver foil appliqués, silk flowers, and clichéd printed mottoes like “Be Mine” and “Constant and True.”

Read the entire entry on the National Postal Museum Blog


There's still time to make your loved ones a homemade card for Valentine's Day, if you haven't already, but the clock is ticking! Scroll through my posts over these last couple of weeks if you need some inspiration.

Smiles,

CHARMing Good Neighbors

I had a lot of fun making this card using the new (free!) sale-a-bration Good Neighbors stamp set, (free!) matching Designer Series Paper pad and (free!) scallop border punch. (Can you tell I like free stuff?)

A little key I had just laying around the house tied with a small piece of twine made for the perfect little 3D charm to add a special extra touch.

The trees on the coordinating envelope were a snap to line up on the new clear blocks. All three images can go on the same block for quick & accurate placement.

TIP: If you're using the new clear-mount option, make sure you press the rubber image down firmly onto the clear block. They're more of a cling vs. sticky so they work really well if you make sure to apply a bit of pressure so the cling can stick.

Smiles,

LOVE for all you do

Good morning!

Remember this cute little mini card from a few days ago?



Well I always like to think of ways to make holiday sets work for other occasions, so it occurred to me to try to make more of my "non-holiday" sets work for holidays. TIP: Try this!! Using sets with colors you might not think of at first really helps make your collection so much more versatile.

I made some quick changes to the color scheme and waalaa! A cute little Valentine perfect for the one you love.




You can make it, too!
- Cardstock used was Chocolate Chip, Real Red & Whisper White
- Ink used was Pretty in Pink & Real Red
- And then a little extra touch with the Hemp Twine and a dimensional to pop up the single Real Red flower
- The pretty flower images are from the For All You Do stamp set


Have fun making your Valentine's! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Kristi

confession.

More Valentine's Day fun coming soon, but first I wanted to share with you these two cards using the "Of the Earth" hostess set.

Both use the same stamps & basically the same layout, but a few simple changes in the colors make it easy to create a gift set (for example) of coordinating, yet different, cards.

My dear sister-in-law (Hi Micaela!) needed a set of cards to use as thank you cards & farewell cards before she quit her job as a nurse to go travel & volunteer in Bolivia for 6 months. She was looking for something appropriate for co-workers/bosses/people who wrote letters of recommendation for her/etc. and I thought a set like this would be just perfect.








CONFESSION. You've read this far (thank you) (if anyone did...), so I have a stamping secret to share with you. I guess it's sort of a secret, sort of a bit of advice.

When you have all of your stampin' stuff out and you're having so much fun stamp stamping away and you come up with a gorgeous card design, make two. Vary it a bit, if you wish, like I did above... but make two. That way when you remember two minutes before heading out the door to go to a birthday party/baby shower/graduation/enter in your special event here you will have a stash of lovely & thoughtful handmade cards to choose to give the lucky recipient.

They can think you planned ahead & made it just for them & they don't even have to know it can from your secret stash. Not that I've ever had to do that...

smiles,
Kristi

For All You Do - mini square card!

This cute little square card was so easy, fun & QUICK to make!

- Start with a Not Quite Navy base
- Stamp the little square flower image from For All You Do in Bashful Blue & cut it out close to the edge,leaving a little bit of a white border all the way around. Then stamp the little flower from For All You in Summer Sun and cut out.
- Attach the Bashful Blue image to Kraft cardstock (my favorite!)
- Then attach your cute little flower with part of a dimensional and tie a piece of twine around the Kraft paper.
- Attach it to the base (I like to use SNAIL adhesive best for this), decorate an envelope to match and you're done!

... I think next we should try to make a Valentine's Day inspired card using the same easy (yet impressive!) design. What do you think?

Check back for it!

Kristi