Pebbles Blog Hop - Basics Lunchbox Cards

Welcome to your next stop along the Pebbles Back to Basics Blog Hop (if you started here, you can find a list of all the stops on the hop at the end of this post).  Today I have a GIVEAWAY and a Basics project to share with you.

 My kids have gone back to school, and this year I have 2 of them who eat lunch at school.  I thought it would be fun to make some little cards to slip in their lunchboxes to let them know I'm thinking about them.  I have 2 different styles of cards since I have one kiddo who can read, and one who's just beginning to learn. 

 All of my cards measure 3" x 4".  The cards for my beginner reader are simple messages spelled out with Thickers and paper shapes.  Since my kiddos are boys, I also had to make sure there wasn't a hint of pink, purple, or anything "girly" here. Instead of ribbons and bling, I used border punches, washi tape, and foam adhesive to add dimension. 

For my reader, I upped the fun factor with joke cards.  

 Don't let the lift the flap fool you, these are super easy to put together. 

Just score the question piece about 1/8" - 1/4" from the top.  Place the adhesive on the back side of the small scored area, and attach it to your lunchbox card over the answer piece.   

 You can even add a little extra note to the back of your cards if you like. 

 To be honest, I've already sent these to school with my kids, and they LOVED them, and since they're so easy I know I'll be putting together another batch soon. 

The Giveaway:
Thanks for checking out my project today! I've also got a giveaway generously furnished by Pebbles!  Up for grabs is a selection of Pebbles Basics paper (like the stuff I used to create my cards), 2 sets of Thickers, Clothespins, Chips Tags and washi tape (colors may vary)!

To enter, all you need to do is leave me a comment about anything. Tell me your favorite (kid friendly) joke, introduce yourself, tell me if you've ever made lunchbox cards...anything you'd like, just make sure to leave  a comment!  The giveaway will be open until 11:59 pm central time on Friday, September 6, so be sure to come back Saturday to see if you're the winner (and to check out another fun Pebbles project).

Here's a little eye candy and links to all the other stops so you can keep on hopping and have chances to win giveaways on the other designers' blogs (and don't forget to comment on Pebbles blog for a chance at the grand prize!):

Amanda Coleman - Paper Gift Bag | Becky Williams - Cutest Little Minnie Scrapbook Layout Candace Zentner - Celebrate You Card | Emily Spahn - My Guy Scrapbook Layout Eva Pizarro - Fresh Market Scrapbook Layout | Holly Gagnon - Time for Tea Juliana Michaels - Gift of Love Scrabook Layout | Kathy Martin - Carolina Scrapbool Layout Kim Jeffress - Happy Birthday! Card | Kim Kesti - You Make Me Smile Scrapbook Layout Laurel Seabrook - Teacher Gift | Marjan Pel - Birthday Scrapbook Layout Nina Yang - Paper Gift Box | Patricia Kumfer - Pebbles Basics Cards Renee Zwirek - Hello Happiness Scrapbook Layout | Samantha Taylor - Lunch Box Cards Suzanna Lee - Make a Wish Scrapbook Layout | Tiffany Hood - Baby Gift Wendy Antenucci - Celebrate Together Scrapbook Layout | Wendy Sue Anderson - Paper Gift Bags

Pebbles Basics Marine Chevron

Pebbles Basics Black Mini Dot

Pebbles Basics Powder Dot

Pebbles Basics Apricot Dot

Pebbles Basics Ash Cevron

Basics Foam Thickers Aqua

Basics Foam Thickers Black

Basics Washi Tape: Ash, Rouge, Honeycomb

American Crafts White Card Stock

American Crafts Primaries Card Stock

American Crafts Tropicals Card Stock

American Crafts 03 Black Precision Pen 

American Crafts Knock Outs Border Punch

American Crafts This to That Foam Adhesive

EK Success Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Silhouette Cameo

Plaid Alcohol Ink Background

A little while back I heard about a technique that used alcohol inks to create a plaid background. It sounded so cool to me, and I had to try it out for myself. You know what? The technique is super fun and really, really easy. Check out the card I mad using this technique:

 ...and the possibilities are endless, since you can chose just about any color combo you want! Want to see more about how I created this card? I'm blogging over at A Walk Down Memory Lane today, and I have a video tutorial over there showing how to make a plaid background with alcohol inks. Click here to head on over to AWDML's blog  tocheck out the video and to check out more about the card below. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

2 Page Layout: The Big Raft Lake Fun

School may have started, but I'm still working on my summer photos. 

I love the bright colors and pops of navy in Fancy Pants' Down By the Shore collection. I couldn't resist those colorful little fish for scrapping some sunny photos from the lake.  I layered Down By the Shore up with a few stickers, some enamel dots, a little washi tape and some wood accents.    

Have you scrapped anything with Down by the Shore? I'd love to see it!

Thanks for stopping by.

Gelato Birthday Card

I'm sorry for being away from blogging for almost a week! The kids went back to school today, and we were busy fitting in lots of last minute summer fun.  It's been a while since I've shared a card, so how about a fun birthday one.

First of all, I love Gelatos. They're such a fun and different medium to work with, and there are so many ways to use them.  For this one, I simply colored with my Gelatos directly onto my Hero Arts/Studio Calico Starburst stamp.  I misted the stamp with water, and then stamped directly onto my card stock. So simple, and such a great watercolor effect.  I added the center birthday words last, from the W Plus 9 Written on Ribbon stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Creativity is...

The start of school is just around the corner. I'm always looking for ways to organize, simplify, and, of course, display the fun projects my kids bring home.  My refrigerator doesn't have much room, and often doesn't do their projects justice.  Hopefully this will:

My husband builds things, and makes things, and repairs things, so there's always scrap wood lying around.  I had him cut a board that was about 3 1/2" tall to a little over 2' long (I actually held my hands apart and said, "I want it about this ____ long." Which makes him roll his eyes!).  I painted it with some leftover whitewash from my bulletin board project. 

 I used my Silhouette to cut the words from Basic Grey's Bowties paper and attached them with Ultra Thin Glue Dots®. 

 I used mini clothespins from Little Yellow Bicycle. I especially loved these for this project because they have words on them like, "love" and "wonderful".  I decided to stain them a blueish color (not shown in the picture above, but you can see it in the picture below) with Lindy's Stamp Gang T-bird Turquoise Flat Fabio Mist. I attached them with Glue Lines from Glue Dots®.

Now all I have to do is get my husband to hang it on the wall, and I've got a great place for my kids to display their work!

Thanks for stopping by.

I wrote this post while on the Glue Dots® Design Team.

DIY Chalkboard

I'm a list person.  Lists make me happy, they help me keep my sanity, remember things, and I kind of love that feeling when you get to cross things off your list.  You know what's even better than a list? A list kept in a pretty place. That's why I made this fun and very functional chalkboard for my craft room. The best part is that I can change out the little corner embellishment easily when the season changes, or when I just want something new to look at.

Supplies:

Craft Glue Dots®

Picture frame (any size will work as long as you can find vinyl wide and tall enough to fit it)

Chalkboard Vinyl

Miscellaneous Embellishments.

Putting this together is pretty simple.  Just cut your chalkboard vinyl to the same size as the glass in your picture frame. Remove the glass from your frame, and cover the glass in chalkboard vinyl.  Return the glass to your frame.

Now here's the fun part. Gather some extra embellishments. That time you make 4 paper flowers, but only needed 1? Grab the extra one. Have some cute felt leaves you didn't know what to do with? Grab those.  If you don't have anything laying around, you can try your hand at making a simple ribbon flower like this one (just don't add the pin back), or a paper pumpkin like this one.  You can even get your kids in on the action and have them make you something fun. 

Once you know what embellishment you want to add, use a Craft Glue Dot (usually just 1 or 2 will hold the embellishment securely) to the bottom corner of the frame. When the season changes, or you just want something new to look at, gently peel the embellishment (with the Craft Glue Dot still attached) away from the frame.  Add a new embellishment. It's that easy! 
 

 If you decide to try this out, I'd love to see what you make! Just link it up in the comments.

Need some Glue Dots® for this project? Check out Glue Dots' Blog post here for a Back to School Glue Dots® giveaway.  

Thanks for stopping by today!

I wrote this post while participating on the Glue Dots® Design Team.

Dirt Bike Fun

Today I have a layout of my oldest riding his dirt bike. He's gotten really good at it this summer, so I thought it would make a fun layout. 

I had one piece of paper I knew I wanted to use for this layout. That piece with the dirt bikes on it (it's from Imaginisce's Outdoor Adventure) called out to me from the shelves at AWDML.  From there I just started pulling random papers and embellishments from my shelves that seemed to work.  Washi tape? Yes, please! Simple Stories 24/7? Perfect!  Even a bit of adhesive backed cork worked its way into the layout as a photo mat.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a beautiful weekend!