Wii Love our Mom!

My mom watches my sisters' kids 5 days a week because they both work full-time. When she wants to go to the fitness center to work out, she just takes the kids. Well, my younger sister is pregnant again and soon Mom will have a newborn to take care of. The fitness center she is a member of doesn't have childcare for young babies, so she looked into getting a Wii Fit so she could exercise at home in the evenings.

My sisters and I decided to surprise her with a Wii and a Wii Fit for Mother's Day to say a huge "thank you" to her (from my sisters) for all that she has sacrificed to be home with her grandkids and (from me) for the times when she offers to watch my kiddos while I run errands or when I just need a break. She is available for sleepovers when the kids want to spend the night with her.

She is a great Grammy to our kids and we wanted to surprise her this year to say "thank you".

Here is the card I made for everyone to sign for Mom.

I took a stamp of a little girl holding her lunch bag, masked the bag (to remove it) and drew a mini Wii-mote for her to hold instead.


Then I drew a circle around her to make it look like she was a Mii in the Mii Marketplace. Don't they have little circles around them when they're waiting for you to choose the one you want to be? Anyway...

A close up of the Wii-mote. I was so, so pleased with how it turned out!


And, my Mom loves puns, so, even though I kind of give her present away, I had to make the inside say this:


By giving the presents away in the card, I didn't have to wrap them since they're big! I could just leave them in the car and get them after she read the card.

Happy Mother's Day! I hope all had a great and wonderful day! Wii did!

Fancy Smancy Gift Card Holder

This Men's Billfold is so neat! I found the directions on Lorri's blog. It looks like it would be hard, but it's really quite easy, although maybe a little time-consuming.

I made this a while ago and was saving it for a perfect occasion. I got one! My husband and some friends recently tiled our kitchen and this went to one of the guys with a huge thank you (and a Lowe's gift card). We are so blessed to have great friends! I typed "Thank you" on the computer and matted it on the front. I forgot to take a picture of it like that, though, so the front looks very boring...


I cheated for the picture and put two small magnets inside to hold the wallet closed for the pictures because it kept wanting to pop open. When I gave it, I was able to tuck it in an envelope, so it's okay that it doesn't stay closed on it's own.


The inside, empty.


The inside, full. Unfortunately, that's not what our friend got inside his. :-)


Look how much you can stuff inside!


If I ever make another... maybe?...I think it would be fun to give this with pictures in the pockets. Or maybe the kids could draw pictures and we could trim them down and put them in the pockets. Or handmade coupons that fit for the recipient. Hmmm, lots of neat ideas!

Here's another take on the same wallet.

And, yet another take on her design.

Here's a neat idea for a sort of similar wallet, maybe more for a girl instead.

How-To Place Alphabet Stickers

I recently learned a great tip that I've used several times since and I wanted to share it with you.

When using stickers in your cardmaking or scrapbooking, it can be hard to know how much room your word or words will need. It's hard to center the word or words and have even space between letters.

Here's a super easy trick to help you do it perfectly every time.

First, I took a tin I was personalizing for someone and chose my stickers.


The I found a plastic straight edge. You can use a thin ruler, a piece of paper that was used for stickers, a strip of waxed paper, etc. I used a wrapper from a set of rub-ons.


Next, start lining your stickers, half on, half off of the edge. Try not to handle the stickers too much because the oils on your fingers will cause the stickers to lose their sticky-ness (is that a word?). Unsticky stickers, not good.


You can move letters around as needed until you get them exactly where you would want them on your card or paper.


Decide where you want the stickers and press the top half down securely.


Slowly begin pulling the plastic edge out from under the stickers, making sure your stickers stay put. You can even hold them down while you pull out the plastic edge.


Then press the lower edges of the stickers down.


Now you're finished!


Make sure you rub over the stickers to ensure that they are well stuck.

Stand back and admire your perfectly straight letters. And save your plastic edge for the next time!

Accordion Album

Sheri asked me recently how I make an accordion album. I started to answer her in an e-mail, but it got long and I thought there might be others that would be interested in knowing how, too, so I decided to post it here.

I have done it two different ways, so I'll tell you both, in case you don't have the same tools I do.

The way I make them now is using my Scor-Pal. It has made it so much easier, but it's not necessary. First, cut your 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock (I usually use white or off-white cardstock, depending on the colors in my papers, but you could use any color you like) at 3 1/2 in. Cut a 3 1/2 x 2 inch practice "page" first and make sure that's the size you want. You might want a slightly bigger or smaller page, depending on your cutter's measurements. Just make sure it will fit inside your tin.

Then, using my Scor-Pal, I score at 2, 6 and 10. Then I flip the paper and score at 4 and 8. Fold at the scores and use a corner rounder to round all the corners. Depending on the thickness of your cardstock and the sharpness of your corner rounder (I have used my Stampin' Up! corner rounder for years and years and it's still as sharp as ever), it might be hard to round the corners on the folds.

Two other ways, without a Scor-Pal would be to use a guillotine-style cutter or a trimmer that has a scoring tool. Those are the two trimmers I have.

With a guillotine-style cutter, after cutting your paper to 12 x 3 1/2 inches, put it length-wise at 2 inches and fold it over the cutting edge. (Do not cut!) Then turn it over, put the fold you just made at 2 inches and fold again. Continue folding and flipping, measuring at the 2 inch mark each time. Fold and round the corners as stated above.

With a scoring tool, score at each 2-inch interval, using the fold at 2, flipping the paper with each score. Fold and round corners.

Once you've done that, you'll be ready to embellish the pages. The patterned papers you use will be cut to 3 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches. I sometimes tear papers to give texture. You can use 3-D embellishments, like brads, flowers, buttons, etc, as long as the album folds up and still fits inside the tin. You can use ribbon to tie the album closed. You can do only a matte, no patterned paper extras, cut at 3 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches, and then cut your pictures.

Have fun with it!

Was this info helpful? Did you try it yourself? Leave a comment here, linking us to your accordion album!

Popsicle anyone?

Happy Summer! For some reason, popsicles make me think of summer!


I found this "recipe" (haha, pun intended!) on Patty's blog Patty's Stamping Spot for a popsicle card.

I didn't adhere the ice cream center (aka white cardstock) to the card yet, because I figure it will be easier to write my note without the stick in the way. When I am ready to sign it and give it away, I'll use pop dots to adhere it and make the popsicle more 3-D. Who likes a flat popsicle anyway? :-)


I don't have any fruit stamps or even anything that would work with a popsicle, but I like it plain, too. And, I did order some fruity/summery stamps from Whipper Snapper Designs.

I have a lady on etsy that wanted a cherry-themed refrigerator scrapbook (a Mary Engelbreit look) and I couldn't find exactly what I wanted, so we agreed that stamping my own paper would work perfectly. So, then I had an excuse to get the stamp set I already had on my wish list. It's a win-win, don't you think? :-)

CD Holder and Thank You Card in One

A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a week with my Grandpa and his wife, Nancy. They fed us, provided fresh, clean beds to sleep on, the use of their washer and dryer and just made it a wonderful vacation for us!

We had a great time and I wanted to let them know how much it was appreciated. I had a CD of pictures to send them that I had taken from our time there, so I googled a CD holder and found this template. I changed it up a bit, since I was using it for a card instead of an album, and then made it my own style and this is what I ended up with. I sort of used Taylor's sketch-TECC20, but I changed it up a bit (and I was way too late to post it to her challenge--Bummer!).


I had room on the left inside to write a note.


I'm so, so pleased with how well it all came together and it was exactly what I pictured! I don't know if I'll ever have a reason to make another one, but this one was perfect.

I hope G'pa Roger and G'ma Nancy know how much they are appreciated and loved!

I'll leave you with a picture from our trip. My husband, Slade, didn't make it and my mom was taking the picture. We also had an extra kiddo, my nephew, Josh.


Back (L-R) My dad, me, G'pa Roger, Nancy.
Front (L-R) Randall, Josh, Russell

Stamps: Grasshopper Fluffles by Stampendous!
Paper: cardstock, My Mind's Eye patterned paper
Tools: copic markers, scor-pal, corner rounder with guard removed

Gift Card Holder

This is a birtrhday card gift card holder. I made a similar one for my mom for Mother's Day and totally forgot to take a picture before we all wrote in the inside. So, I had to make another one. This is different than hers, but it's the same style. I'll be listing this one in my etsy store soon.


The belly band slides off so the card can be opened.


I followed this tutorial on Dawn's Stamping Thoughts and even asked her permission to sell these at craft shows. Turns out, she didn't design it. She also said that normally you only need permission if you are going to submit (for publication) something you've made using someone else's pattern.

Stamps: Gift Wrapped by Stampabilities
Paper: cardstock
Tools: Stampin' Up! word window punch, 3/4" circle punch, copic markers, scor-pal

I splurged...

...and I'm so glad I did!

I discovered that our local stamp store, BStamps & Stuff, sells scor-pals. I did not know she carried them. And, it was the same price as you can get it online--minus the shipping! So, I made a spontaneous decision to get it. I can't wait to play with it!

There are so many tutorials on Splitcoaststampers on different fun 3D projects. Some of them I am able to make without a scor-pal, just by using my 12" paper trimmer. But, on some of the more complex projects, like the meander book, I can try and try and it just doesn't work out. And, the ones that do work can be more time-consuming and difficult without the ease of the scor-pal. I'll be sure to show the fruits of my labor!