Moxie Fab Bright Bite Birthday

The colors of this week's Moxie Fab Trigger Tuesday image were so deliciously inspiring, I had to play along.

I kept my card clean and simple, used the colors in the same order and punched the large starburst shapes with a combination of an EK punch and a large round punch.  The little wedges between each row of dots were snipped out by hand.

A Fiskars punch was used for the smaller starbursts punched from glitter cardstock.  If you look closely, you'll see the sentiment is actually a sticker: I printed it on my PC, trimmed around the letters and adhered.

The matching multicolored mat was pieced together from scraps.

Jillibean Soup Anniversary Card

My first time using Jillibean products.  This anniversary card was made from the Sweet and Sour Soup collection for my cousins Paul and Ann.  I pieced the base of the card together using a striped panel, a brown panel with cut-out letters, and a flowered panel that itself was pieced to ensure that the large flowers would both be seen. 

I then added the chipboard flower and brads.

And coordinated the inside with a cut-out-letters word.

Moxie Fab DIY Embellishments Challenge

Here's my entry into the Moxie Fab World DIY Embellishments Challenge.  It could have been entered it into the "household item" challenge instead, but I don't usually set out to make my own embellishments so I think it's a good fit here.  

I started with the foil cover from a drink can, flattened and smoothed it out, then wrapped it around a circle of thin cardboard.  The ribbon was added in 3 pieces to the back.  I stamped the sentiment on a piece of DCWV designer cardstock - the Grade School 4.5 x 6.5" stack.

The scroll design on the cardstock was only found in one corner, so I trimmed the scroll off of a second piece, and that's the piece I used to stamp on - for balance.

Moxie Fab Paper Scraps Challenge

There are five challenges going on over at the Moxie Fab World blog to celebrate the release of a Papercrafts Magazine special issue: Practical Solutions For Papercrafters. I jumped on the Paper Scraps Challenge right away; one thing I have is scraps! 

There are a lot of ways to use scraps in strips or squares or punched-out shapes, but for this card, I took some small pieces of coordinating green patterned paper, taped them together to make one long strip and then used a deep edge punch to achieve the color-changing leaf border. 

I used the same papers to make a mat for the sentiment sticker and added a tiny punched leaf to finish it off. 

Moxie Fab Sweet Inspiration

Except for a quick bike ride (# 8 of "30 Rides in 30 Days"), I relaxed the rest of the day.  Good thing I'd already finished a card for the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger.  This is the sweet little inspiration  photo:

And here's my take on it:

I wove strips of white and blue paper to form the patterned paper, placed it behind a frame and added punched flowers and sticker sentiment.  Sweet and easy!

The Colors and Flavors of Easter

Happy Easter, Everyone!  I hope you had the kind of weather we had here in Minneapolis: beautiful.  The sidewalk in front of Broder's sprouted these Adirondack chairs.

Along my walk to a local restaurant to met Mom and the siblings and sis-in-law for brunch, these tulips were in bloom.

David and I take pictures of food.  It's just what we do.

The five of us polished off these platters at Edina Grill: Strawberry Waffles with Whipped Cream, Spinach Tomato Quiche with Greens, Braised Beef Benedict with Smoked Gouda Hash, Chardonnay Poached Salmon with Aspargus and Dijon Dill Cream.  There were mini cupcakes for dessert, and Mimosas or Bloody Marys (or both) to drink.

And then I had to go home and relax before posting some cards to a Moxie Fab Challenge.

Spring Take-Out

I haven't played along with a Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger for awhile, so here's a look at my entry before I run outside to go for my first (short) bike ride on the first day of April.  The colors of the inspiration photo below had me thinking of a piece of card-weight paper I'd just collected this week. 

I love how that worked out!  The curved panel in the middle is actually a Lee Ann Chin soft drink cup.  Without knowing anything about the Tuesday Trigger colors, I had dried and flattened the cup for later use.  The colors were perfect; I just added a coordinating top and bottom panel of designer paper (company unknown - the 4.5 x 6.5" paper pack).

Even the flower centers were cut from other sections of the cup, then backed with cardstock and finished with a brad in the center. 

I printed the "fortune cookie" sentiment on my PC using a curved WordArt format, then cut it out by hand, following the curve. A friend who has a birthday later this month and who likes all things Asian-inspired will be the lucky recipient of this card. 

Clipping and Cricut Card

The background of this anniversary card for cousins Sara and Jory is a clipping from an advertisement. How could I pass up using such a colorful design? I used a Cricut cartridge to cut the latice shapes from some glossy black paper.

Then added a heart and 2 doves punched from glitter cardstock.

The raindrop shapes are all part of the print ad, but the tiny glittery dots are more punches strategically added.

Warmest March, Stillwater Sunday

It's shaping up to be the warmest March on record.  Here's the proof:  March 25th and my Mock Orange bushes are full of leaves already.

They don't usually flower until May, but I'm betting they will be in bloom over a month early this year.

The buds on my maple tree are "fluffing" out too. 

On this summery Sunday, C and I drove to Stillwater, passing this short wind generator in North St Paul.

We walked up the main street in downtown Stillwater to browse one of the larger antique shops, then saw this car on the way back...

...with the Bob's Big Boy figure in the rear window, bringing back memories of a favorite diner from childhood vacations.

We wet our whistles with rum drinks at Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque and made a light supper out of some delicious appetizers before heading for home.

Pirates, anyone?

Inchie Notecards

For this set of thank you notes, I looked through my supply of "inchies".  Several years ago, I joined a few swaps through Splitcoaststampers to trade inchies - tiny 1 x 1" pieces of art that each of us made.  They can be added to cards as embellishments or focal points.

Each of the cards I made had the same basic format.  The inchie was the starting point for the color choice.

This card had the same basic sketch, but I strung some punched glitter hearts instead.

The last card started with an inchie I made:  stamped and glitter-embossed beehive, pre-made bee embellishment, metallic cardstock bottom mat.

The two patterned papers are, as well as the yellow background, are from my hand-made paper supply.

Spring Into Summer

The new green ribbon on my front door wreath is one of the ways I welcome Spring.  But Summer arrived just after Daylight Saving Time this year!  The 50-degrees we'd been having in the Twin Cities turned into 70 today. 

 Downtown St Paul was bustling with warm-weather activities.

A food truck was parked next to Rice Park (across from Landmark Center):  I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich from "Messy Giuseppe".  A bicycle ice cream vendor pedaled by while I waited.  Music was coming from the park.   

This is the view of Landmark Center from my office cubicle.  It's a great place to rest my eyes when taking a short break from my PC. 

I'll have more photos as Spring progresses and I'm able to get outside during my short lunch break.

Signs of Spring

Happy Daylight Savings Time! And the weather here in the Twin Cities is making that extra hour of daylight in the evening very useable!

Just last week this view from the office of my new temp job included snow flurries.

But two days of over 50 degrees has started the buds a-budding.  And 2 straight weeks of open-window weather is predicted (yes, I opened my windows and turned off the furnace yesterday, and have no plans to change anything back).  I looked for a space heater today at Target and found all the gardening supplies were on the shelves and almost no winter gear in sight.  I will look for one at some other stores; if I need a bit of heat in one room, it really saves money to just use a space heater rather than turn on the furnace and heat up the whole house. 

I've been working on some cards that I will post soon.  The designs are complete, but I'm waiting on a delivery of ink for my printer so I can finish the insides of the cards.   And the studio rearrange is almost done, so I'll have photos of that too.