Wish Shoe Well!!

Hello everyone & Happy Tuesday to you all!  I am back from Nashville and semi-rested up, LOL!  I had a great trip down to the South--I enjoy the South so much, I just know it's going to be my home someday.  All the ladies were fabulous and I had so much fun teaching, going to dinner with some of the gals (waving hi) and just chatting.  And big huggies to my friend Jessica Deidrech for taking me around Nashville to see the Grand Ole Opry and Franklin, TN (home of Tim McGraw & some yummy crab-egg benedict, lol). Nope I didn't kidnap Tim but that's okay---I just wanna give him a big ole hug one of these days!  It took me about 9 hours to get home--so I got home around 2:30 am yesterday morning.  The ride was uneventful--just me & the truckers, LOL!  I ate something, hubby helped me unpack the car and then I fell face first into bed, hee hee.  The kids have off school today for a teacher workday, but I'm working all day as I have tons to get done before I leave for CHA on Thursday--egads, I'm already worried about getting everything done.  UNBELIEVABLY hubby folded & put away all the laundry I had done before I left, cleaned the kitchen & laundry room and stocked the fridge.  Well okay--he stocked the fridge with junk but at least he tried, LOL!  Him & the kids ate snacks and watched the BUMMER football games yesterday while I was heading home.  I'm NOT watching the SuperBowl this year (sniff..sniff) since I don't like either team much, BUT I will be watching the Black Eyed Peas perform :) at halftime!   So off I go to work on projects and hopeful the kids don't interrupt too much with fighting and/or whining today as is the usual for me when they are home!  I have a few pics to share below--I'm waiting for some of the gals from class to email me more pics to share with you all!

Nashville Pics:

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Wish Shoe Well!!

Thank goodness for all my projects from my wonderful stint as a Dirty Dozen Gal on SCS last year---they are going to save me in a pinch, LOL this year!  THIS project has NO stamps on it--GASP! LOL!  But it sure was fun for me to create--this is one of the last projects I created for the Dirty Dozen/Fan Club Gallery and the theme was "Creative Invitations" and it was my most FAVORITE!  I love, love shoes (and purses too)--I won't tell you how many I have but I love a cute shoe!  I saw this tutorial on SCS and just fell in love--you can see it HERE!  But I couldn't stop there--I had to add the invite in the shoe and then create a matching shoe box for it too!

So my invitation is for a "Bachelorette Party" or "Girlfriend Party"---wouldn't these be so fun to send out to your girlfriends as invites.  Imagine how exciting it would be to open something like this---I would LOVE it!  The fun paper I used is by Crate Paper--I loved the Asian feel to it but very elegant at the same time! It was also double-sided which I highly recommend you use when using this template so the inside of your shoe is pretty too!  I created the buckle with a Sizzix die I had and then for the toe of the shoe I layered some Primas and a pretty Prima Pearl Center.

Here's a side view of the shoe--isn't it fabulous?  I would sooooo wear this :)  I had plans this past Christmas to make some for my trees but I ran out of time (gee who woulda thunk it right, lol)--but I really want to make some this year to hang up.

Since my theme was "Bachelorette Party" I made up a fun lil' ditty to put on the inside "One Last Fling, Before She Gets Her Wedding Ring" and then the invite details.  How did I do it?  I printed out the shoe's sole template on white printer paper---then I created the wording in my MS Word program and made sure it fit within the sole of the shoe by printing it out.  I cut the sole out of my matching cs and then lightly taped the shape OVER the printing I had done and ran the whole thing thru the printer again--that way the printing ended up right on my inside-sole of my shoe and I just used Scor-Tape to attach it.

This is the matching shoe box---I just used a basic box template and then changed the size of it to fit my shoe.  The border trim was done with a beautiful MS border punch and then attached to the underside of the lid with more Scor-Tape.  The ribbon wrap is a belly wrap around the box so it can be easily slipped off---I decorated the top of it with some more pretty Prima flowers & a bow.

And this is what the shoe-invite looks like all bundled up in tissue paper inside the box.  At the side is the belly band that wraps around the box.  Such a beautiful and elegant way to present an invitation to those who are special in your life for a super-special event!  And I must say it was soooo much FUN to make too!

Hope you enjoyed the post today!!  See you tomorrow :)

Friday Surprise!!

Happy TGIF! Ahh, it's almost weekend time and only 2 more days of school left. No more getting up at 6 am--yippee--we get to sleep in (we are a family of sleepers here)!! Two dance recitals this weekend and then we are officially done,well, except for camps. My daughter has to take 4 weeks of ballet camp (required at her level) and my son is taking 1 week of golf camp and 1 week of tennis camp. We'll probably go to Rehoboth Beach for a few days, and then my dh and I are taking an 8 day trip by ourselves this summer (so looking forward to that)!! The rest of the time we will chill--so need that--just doing whatever we want! Love Summer :)

Today's project is actually the one I was working on the other day -- you know the day the extreme heat here fried my brain-lol! This was the New Technique Challenge on SCS for this week and you can find the tutorial for it here. I just love doing challenging cards and this one was a little bit challenging--once you get one done, I'm sure it gets easier the second time around. I think I was overly challenged because I changed some of the dimensions and it was kind of trial and error the first go-around. The pop-up element was just calling for a cut-out popper and I was just dying to use my new stamp set "Jumping for Joy" by Gina K. I just love this little bear--looks like he's cannonballing into the pool (my son's fave activity). When I saw this tutorial I just knew it would make a fantastic invitation--and what better than a summer invite to a pool party, really fun to recieve! I've had this Frances Meyer pool paper forevah and dug it out of my stash to use for the background dp. The yellow cs is PTI's summer sunrise. I printed the words out on my computer on PTI's white cs and then colored them in w/ my Copics. I added some pool waves and drew some "splash water" onto the dp and then cut it out and pasted it behind the bear. Lots of stardust stickles on this card--love the sparkle! Hope you likee it--go see the tutorial and try one for yourself. I know I'll be making more of these in the future.

I will try and post at least one project this weekend. We will be running around to recitals and trying to celebrate Dad's Day somewhere in between-lol. Until then...

Suzanne

Pool Party Invite--Gina K stamps "Jumping for Joy" (invite words, bear, beach ball), computer font, PTI white & summer sunrise cs, Frances Meyer pool dp, Doodlebug Designs polka-dot dp, Copics, American Crafts ribbon, stardust stickles, dimensionals