PPA 4 - Anything BUT a Card

Mother's Little Helper

The latest Pals Paper Arts challenge is Anything BUT a Card. This was the perfect opportunity for us to craft something for my niece, Stephanie who is having a baby shower in a couple of weeks! After going through gobs of possibilities, we decided to go with a set of diaper bag tags for trips to the babysitter. The tags include important info like parents' names and contact info, allergies and medications, and Baby's favorite things (foods, games, toys, etc.). I wish I'd had these when my own children were little!




When I become a Grandma (or "Lola" as it's called in Filipino), I am totally making these for my grandkids. We tag-teamed this project, with Kat doing the decorative front of each info tag and me tackling the cover and writing out the backs. We work so well together!

For the sleeves, we used baseball card protectors. They're heavy duty, so they'll withstand a lot of drooling in case the baby gets ahold of them! We punched a hole with a 1/4" circle punch in the upper left corner of each of five protectors so that we could slip them on a binder ring. This is a good workout for your hands because the sleeves are so thick!

Our card bases are textured cardstock in the new In Colors, cut to 3-1/4" x 2-5/8". The images were stamped in Soft Suede, colored, cut out, and then mounted onto each card base. Then the phrases were stamped in coordinating colors and the embellishments were added. We used a strip of Razzleberry Lemonade DSP for the skunk card, some paper flowers for the whale card, simple white 1/4" holes for the rocket ship card, and little cardstock rectangles for the hippo card.

The cover is decorated with a 3" x 2-1/4" piece of the Patterns DSP in Bermuda Bay. The letters were cut out of Soft Suede textured cardstock using the Big Shot die cut machine and the Stampin' Up! Billboard Decorative Strip Die. The little flower was made from Summer Sun cardstock and Bermuda Bay textured cardstock using the Big Shot and the Stampin' Up! Birds and Blooms Sizzlit Die; it's attached with an Antique Brass brad.

The info mat on the back of each card is a 3" x 2-1/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock, hand lettered using a Basic Black Stampin' Write Journaler. We left them blank so the parents can fill them in themselves. The final card back is left completely blank in case parents want to put a family photo there or something.

Everything is assembled onto a 1-1/2" binder ring so that it's super easy to put it on a diaper bag, and then we tied on a bunch of random fun ribbons to give it some more color.


Be sure to check out the Pals Paper Arts challenge blog each week for more fun projects! You can get in on the fun, too!

Happy Saturday,

Pia


Stamps: Pun Fun (115054), Curvy Verses (114948), Fundamental Phrases (114968)

Ink: Bermuda Bay (115655), Basic Black (101179), Stampin' Write Journaler - Basic Black (100082)

Paper: In Color Textured cardstock (115538), Whisper White cardstock (100730), Razzleberry Lemonade DSP (115675), Patterns DSP - Bermuda Bay (115684), Summer Sun

Tools: Big Shot Die Cut Machine (113439), Stampin' Up! Birds and Blooms Sizzlits die (113485), Stampin' Up! Billboard Decorative Strip Die (114510), Decorative Strip Spacer Platform (113477), Decorative Strip Cutting Pads (113479)

Other Fun Stuff: Sticky Strip (104294), antique brads from Vintage Brads kit (109109), 2-Way Glue Pen (100425), 1-1/2" binder rings (local office supply store), 1/4" circle punch, colored pencils

A Fun Little Box

I got to play some more last night! Wow, two chances to stamp in a single day... I felt completely spoiled! This time, I thought I'd try my hand at one of those totally cute basket boxes that I've been seeing around. These are made with the Scallop Envelope die and the Big Shot die cut machine. So cool, so much fun, and just too easy! For a step-by-step tutorial, check out Stampin' Pretty and Whoopsie Daisy. You're going to want to make a bunch of these yourself!

One thing I did differently ('cause, honestly, I didn't follow a tutorial for this - I just winged it) was to use four separate panels of Designer Series Paper (in his case, Razzleberry Lemonade) -- one on each box side -- rather than a single, long strip. It allowed me to use a small embellishment on the front, which I really like. I used the flourish stamp from the Lovely Letters alphabet set, stamped in Mambo Melon on Whisper White card stock, and punched with a 1-inch Circle Punch and then stippled with Crushed Curry ink. I put it into a cute little embellishment frame from the Hodgepodge Hardware kit in Stylized Vanilla and attached the Rich Razzleberry ribbon with two brads from that same hardware kit.



I haven't yet decided what to put IN my lovely basket box... maybe a bag of candy, maybe a small gift item of some sort, maybe just some potpourri (and then I can keep the box myself, ha ha!). I will undoubtedly be making more of these for the holidays!

Peace,
Pia

A New Card

Wow, it seems like forever since we've been online! Here's a card I made this morning, to get the creative juices flowing again. I decided to stick with the new In Colors 'cause I like them so much! In fact, I used them ALL in this card! I've paper-pieced the bird and the two flowers, which I think turned out quite nice. The background is stippled in Crushed Curry for some subtle fill-in color. The stamp set is one of the new Hostess sets, available FREE with a qualifying workshop or online order! Here's the whole card front for you:



In other news, Kat got her hair cut on Sunday. She looks totally different now! I'll post photos on our family blog before lunchtime today. You will not believe how grown-up she looks... I can hardly believe it myself!

That's all for now. Hope you have a fantastic day!

Peace,
Pia