An Owl Family Band

A previous post rambled about my compulsive buying of seven JJ owl stamps -what was I ever going to do with all of these owls? Well I decided to start an owl band like the Partridge family.

Creating a replica of the PF bus took some mad paper-crafting skills. I first drew out the bus shape and then used my square and tag punches to cut into appropriate shapes. I photographed the image on a glass surface to give it the reflection.

Below is a close-up of the red-headed smarty pants owl (danny b). For even more good old-fashioned clean fun, find the other partridge family members represented as owls. I used all but one owl (the scholarly owl, which is the one I really wanted...)
I am not sure who will get this one, maybe someone who needs to 'come on get happy!'

Bunnies and birdies and candy, oh my!

Here are two side views of my Easter table. Every place setting had a place card with a hazelnut chocolate carrot (yummy!!!). I love decorating for Easter. Spring is my favorite time of year with the brilliant colors as flowers bloom and the bustling of new life as chicks start to hatch. A couple of my friends are also having babies -congrats to Nicole who gave birth to a little baby girl yesterday on Easter, so sweat!

This is a top view of the centerpiece flanked by two bunnies.

Here is a top view of the extra table to seat our overflow that wouldn't fit at our expanded tables. The flowers were a fantastic surprise, sent to me from my family and the Easter Nutcracker. They are a beautiful mixture of tulips and irises. They were just perfect for the second table -and what a treat to come home to this past Saturday (thanks again!)

This is 'candle holder' I used as a candy holder. I filled it with light green and lavender M&Ms. I love that they now come in any color -to match any party motif! ;)

Happy Easter!

Eddie and I hosted Easter this year for his side of the family as my family is back east right now. The weather in Southern Cal was just gorgeous this weekend. It feels like we skipped Spring and went straight to Summer! Easter was just lovely with great food and great company. I wish my family could have been there too, but we may have run out of room!!!

I had a lot of fun making these place cards for everyone. I used my Mega oval punch for the egg shape and then cut it in half with pinking scissors to give it that cracked egg feel. I glued the bottom half down and then glued a cut and sparkled stamped image somewhat behind the lower half of the egg. I then used a pastel button brad to hinge the top half of the egg, and voila! it opens up to reveal a cutie chickie. I used crystal effects and dazzling diamond glitter (both SU) for the raised sparkle dots.

My fav color is lavender, so I was happy to sprinkle touches of lavender everywhere ;)

Above is a close-up. The cutie chickie and the bunny below are both from the $1 bins from Michael's (which I love love love!).

I made a special place card for Eddie, as he is my 'some bunny special' ;)

Happy Irish Kitty

A little late.....

Since we did not take a Christmas family portrait and I didn't mail off any of the Christmas cards I made this year, I decided that we were going to do a "Happy St. Paddy's Day" card/family update. I have all of the materials (a green bowtie for Chili, my puppy, shamrock headband for Mila, Eddie's puppy, and a cute little hat for Mia). Well, another holiday passes and the cat was the only one lucky enough to get to wear her St. Paddy's Day hat. And she loved it, can't you tell?

Eddie wasn't around to help with this shot -you really need two people when trying to take a picture of a dressed up cat- so this was the best, least grumpy shot I could get :)

It's not like I stole her Lucky Charms or anything...

The Easter Nutcracker

Look what Mia found gallivanting around our backyard, why it is an Easter nutcracker just in time for spring! Nutcrackers have a bit of a history in my family, okay the history is just between my sister(Nat), me, and the Christmas nutcrackers that once called our parent's house home. You see, my older sister is deathly afraid of nutcrackers.

Yes, a bit odd -and I had nothing to do with this strange phobia! Although, as a young prankster I used to move all the nutcrackers in the house into her room in the middle of the night. I would turn them to face her as a pleasant surprise when she woke up. -well okay the pleasant surprise was the intention the first time. The shrieks of terror in the morning (and my ensuing shrieks of laughter) were motivation for the subsequent nights of nutcracker infatuation with my sleeping sister.

Anyways, it is a tradition of mine to hide a nutcracker in one of Nat's Christmas presents -when she spends every other Christmas in Connecticut with her husband's family; I will hide it in her Christmas package -a nice little treat/memories from home. Well this year, I bought a wooden unfinished nutcracker so that I could send her a special nutcracker, but alas; with putting on Christmas dinner, I didn't get a chance, and my sister never got her Christmas nutcracker.
And then in my backyard, Mia finds an Easter nutcracker!!! How perfect, Nat will never be suspecting this (insert evil laugh)...and my parent's will be visiting her for Easter so I can get details of her reaction:) I used acrylic paint for his body -mixing the purple myself so that his legs are more blue and his hands more pink. I colored his hair using SU orchid opulence marker. I also gave him a little haircut.

His bunny belt buckle is an embellishment I made using shrinky dink paper and a Michael's $1 stamp (so is the egg) colored using prismacolor pencils (shrinky dinks are amazing for making your own embellishments!!!).

As my sister is a disco queen, I made his shoes and sword out of a disco ball (okay, silver glitter ;)) His hat is decorated like a pretty polka-dot/glitter easter egg. He really sparkles!!!
Although I am sure the Easter nutcracker will miss his birthplace and home in San Diego (and his cat friend Mia), he is eagerly awaiting his trip to D.C. to meet my sister.

Just Johanna Saturday Opening

Last Saturday I went with the Prissy Pals to the JJ shop opening in So. Cal. We had a great time, above is my make-n-take. I love this cupcake stamp with the strawberry on top. Below is the "bucket of owls" I bought. Now what I am going to do with this many owls, I don't know. Maybe start a band like the Partridge Family? I'll need to make a card with a decorative school bus filled with musical owls...stay tuned.I also got some clearance stamps, I am always a sucker for clearance -even if I don't need it.

Hang in there!

I love this hedgehog stamp from SU -he is just too cute! I made this card for a friend's baby shower last weekend -I barely got a shot of it! I used love notes in white from SU and the paper is from a Spring Fling set I got on sale at JoAnne's last year.

I love making borders with my corresponding punches. I find the best way to do this is to stamp the inner punch first (in this case the 1 3/8 SU circle punch) and then center the punch around the punch out (in this case the SU scalloped circle punch). This was a really fun card to make!

I am so excited for my friend, she is due in a little over 2 weeks -a lucky St. Paddy's Day baby!;)

Another one from Susie's stamp camp

This is another creation from Susie's stamp camp a couple weeks ago. The colors are wild wasabi and sky blue (SU in colors) and the stamp set is Baroque Motifs. I had such fun making this card -I have to get this stamp set ;)

The button brad is from K&Co -I have so many of these brads, they are so pretty I can't help it!