Quick Tutorial: Coordinating Envelopes

Remember these cards I showed you how to make yesterday?  Using Stampin' Up!'s Designer Series Paper?

Well today I wanted to show yet another use for that lovely paper, and share a little tutorial for making coordinating envelopes for your notecards!  Enjoy!

That's it!  Quick, easy, and a wonderful way to dress up a card or invitation!  You can use wrapping paper or scrapbook paper of any kind, too!

I've had our Designer Series Paper on my mind lately because there are all kinds of paper packs available for next to nothing in Stampin' Up!'s Clearance Rack.  These 12x12 packs of 12 sheets of paper are usually $9.95-$12.95 and are clearance-ing out for just $3.99!  You can't beat that!  Here are just a few of the paper packs available...

I put in another order this morning to get stocked up for the summertime - and you can do the same!  Head over to the Clearance Rack section of my online store today by clicking HERE.

Have a beautiful day!

Scrap Every Day in May - Week 3

New to Scrap Every Day in May?  Click on the button to your right ------------------------------------------>

Despite not getting back into town until late Monday and needing most of the week to recover and regroup, I did manage to crank out a couple of layouts in the past couple of days.  Remember that I'm just working on basic layouts right now - and will be adding embellishments, titles, and journaling later on.

I starting putting together a couple of pages from our trip to New York City with Travis' family at Christmastime in 2008.

I'm not thrilled with these pages - they are going to need some serious embellishing I think!  Any ideas?!

The other layout I worked on is one from our trip to Los Angeles back in the summer of 2007.  My brother was living there at the time and we went with my parents for his graduation from the LA Music Academy.

I have to tell you, of all the layouts I've done this month this one may be my favorite.  I love the way it turned out - and think all it really needs is some journaling and a title to finish it off!

I used Lindsey's tip from last week and double matted the photos I wanted to "pop" in this layout... I think it worked out really nicely!

Even though May is coming to an end - I'm going to continue to plug away at this travel scrapbook.  I'm setting myself a goal to be done by mid-June, so I can move on to the dreaded wedding scrapbook!  I'm kind of using my travel scrapbook as a "trial run" before the wedding one... helping me get used to scrapbooking again and hopefully get a little better at it!

Happy Friday! 

Simple Butterfly & Flower Garland Tutorial

Good Morning, Blog Friends!  I hope that you all had a spectacular weekend!  As you read this, I'm still having the time of my life in Las Vegas, and will be back to the real world late this evening.  I'm extremely behind in everything blog-related, so if I haven't responded to your comment or e-mail, or if I haven't visited your lovely blog in a little while, I promise I'll be back in touch with you later this week!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a quick and easy tutorial for the garland I made for Lily's Bug Birthday Party last week.  You could use any shape and color combinations to make your own version of this garland to fit your party theme - and it's easy enough to do that the kiddos can help too!

I'll be back "live and in person" sometime tomorrow -- looking forward to "seeing" you all then!

Mother's Day Brunch Wrap Up

This weekend was a big one for us:  Mother's Day Brunch and Lily's Bug Birthday Party in one 48 hour period.  I was incredibly busy all week getting things ready... I guess in retrospect it's not a surprise that in true Joanne fashion I fell sick on Friday afternoon.  I'm still not sure if it's allergies, a cold, or a sinus infection, but I do know it's been pretty awful.  And a disappointment, for sure, to have to "make it through" all of these fun events instead of 100% enjoying them.

That being said, everything went really well.  I had a hard time deciding which event to post about first!  Believe me, there will be a LOT of photos shared this week -- I hope you don't mind!

We had both sets of parents, Travis' brother and his grandmother to our house for brunch on Mother's Day.  It's the first family holiday we've ever hosted at our place - so I really wanted to make it special.

Here are the placecards I made...

And here's the table.  Being sick and busy I for sure didn't take as many or as great a photos as I would have liked to, but these should give you an idea at least.  I sewed the tablecloth and the runner and napkins myself.

Lots of delicious goodies to eat... so glad Travis likes to cook and was a huge help in this area...

(We also had mimosas, bloody marys, and coffee to drink...)

We were running a little later than planned (don't family meals almost always run that way?!) but we finally sat down to eat...

Here are a few shots of the family.  Top left is Travis and I with his mom and brother.  Top right is the three of us kids with Grandma.  Bottom left is Travis and I with my parents, and bottom right is a cute snapshot of my parents.

And finally... a shot of me and my Mum... 

We had a lovely brunch.  There were a couple of decorative things I just didn't end up doing (too sick, not enough time... you've got to know when to stop and put your sanity and health first, you know?) but I think everything still looked (and tasted!) nice.

I hope that all you Mum's and Mom's (ha!) had a lovely Mother's Day!

PS)  In all the craziness of last week I forgot to mention that I have another article over at Babble.  I hope you'll check it out!

PPS)  Dot over at Dabbled re-featured my Flower Pinata from last year.  In case you missed it, be sure to take a peek!

A little of this, a little of that... (part one)

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  This is one of those catch-all posts, and you can expect a few of these coming your way in the next few weeks.  I have lots to share and lots to do so hang in there with me!

First off, I'm excited to be posting over at The Creative Place today.  Hop on over to Ashley's place and take a peek at my May Day Basket Tutorial!

Secondly... you may remember a little contest that I did awhile back?  You can read about it HERE.  Well, I announced the winner HERE, it was... EVIL_LINA!

But you know what?  I haven't heard from my winner, nor have I been able to contact her through blogger or any other means.  It's been several weeks now, so here's what I've decided to do:

EVIL_LINA... please, please, please contact me (joanneroehm@yahoo.com) by the end of day to claim your prize... if I don't hear from you, I'm going to re-pick the contest winner!  (we can't let those goodies stay unclaimed now, can we?) 

If I still haven't heard from my winner by the end of the day today, I'll have Random.org pick another number from the original entries... so if you entered please stay tuned!  There may still be a chance for you to win some baking goodies!

On an unrelated note, I wanted to share with you the quick notecards I put together for our friends who walked and/or donated to our Making Strides Walk over the weekend.

I was extra lucky to have a helper (thanks, Mariah!) which made putting together a whole bunch of these notecards a breeze.  I've learned that kids LOVE to stamp - and it's so fun to see and share in their enthusiasm!

And finally... you may be noticing a few subtle changes around these parts.  I'm playing with Blogger's new "pages" -- so you should see some tabs at the top of the page under my banner ("Contact" , "About Me", "Stampin' Up!" etc.)  Not all of them are ready to go yet, but by the end of the week you should be able to view all of them.  I'm particularly excited about listing my tutorials in one easy place.

Other changes include some revised labels and archiving for posts (easier searching for you!) and a "Recent/Current Projects" list in the right sidebar - here's where you'll be able to keep up with some of my ongoing projects and catch up with anything you may have missed!

Phew!  Have a wonderful day, friends!

Earth Day Garland

It's been awhile since I posted a tutorial, so I'm extra glad to be sharing my Earth Day Garland with you today.  All you'll need to make this recycled garland is some ink pads in blue and green, sponges (any kind will do!), newspaper scraps, and your sewing machine!