A Mother's Day 'Thank You' Gift

Welcome to a very special Sunday post here at The Open Window

I'm so glad to be able to join these fabulous ladies today

with projects to inspire you to create for Mother's Day.

You should have come by way of 

Angi Barrs' blog

If not, I'd love for you to start at the beginning at

Donna Bowman's blog

There are some pretty fabby prizes up for grabs
and ONLY TEN BLOGS in the hop

{more on that below}

My mom recently asked if I would be willing to start making 

'Thank You' cards for all of the kindess people have been showing

since she started her chemo treatments.  Of course, I am happy to.

I just thought it would be fun to have a nice place for her

to keep them stored as I add to them.

This is going to be a lengthy post, but I thought it would be

fun to show you how I created the designs on the box, so let's get started !

I recently purchased a set of stamps from HSN

and they arrived in this terrific box.

Because there was already so much bold color, I thought it would

be great to keep the box base and most of the lid the way it came.

So I grabbed a few dies, an embossing folder and stickers from

SRM Stickers and proceeded to make my own frame for the lid.

From there, it was time to choose some fun borders to place

on the edges of the lid, so I pulled out my collection of

stickers from SRM.

From there, I knew I wanted to include some fabby baker's twine from

The Twinery, so where to start . . .

I chose to use The Twinery's Mandarin, Marigold & Carribean,

which I also used on each of my cards.

Each of my cards use My Mind's Eye 'Sunny' Collection, SRM Stickers

along with a variety of embellishments such as Stickles, pearls & gems
from Zva Creative & KandCompany.

and fabric flowers (also from MME) & baker's twine from The Twinery.
I also used dies & embossing folders from Spellbinders, Sizzix
and LifeStyle Crafts.

I sure hope you enjoyed this project and find inspiration to
do something fun & colorful for the 'mom' in your life !

To be eligible for prizes from this hop, simply leave
a little love along the way on each designer's blog
and YOU could win !  To see a list of the prizes up for grabs
and a complete list of participating blogs
{ and there are only 10, so it's very do-able }
make sure you start at the beginning.

The next stop on the hop is my dearly creative friend
Jen Cuthbertson's blog

So glad you stopped by today !
Fingers crossed that one of those great prizes is yours !


Products used in this post include:
baker's twine from The Twinery
stickers from SRM Stickers
patterned paper from My Mind's Eye
dies from Spellbinders & Sizzix
embossing folder by LifeStyle Crafts
gems from Zva Creative, KandCompany, Recollections
 cardstock from Bazzill
 

For my Mother

For The Play Date Cafe Color Challenge
CLICK HERE

Welcome back to The Open Window !

You know I love being the DT Coordinator over at

and today, we are continuing our

'No Release' Celebration with terrific projects

by our team.  That's right !  We typically have a new release

at this time of the month, but TCM is gearing up for an

amazing new release in May, so we are sharing projects

with various themes this week and along with that,

you can SAVE LOTS OF MONEY because

every stamp set is 21% off !!!

Just enter the code

April21

at checkout to get your discount !

Today's theme is 'Mothers' and with every second I spent

on this card, I thought of my mom.

Just a few short weeks ago, she was diagnosed with lung cancer

and it's been a sad, but hopeful time.

The feature set I've used from TCM is called 'Hope Blooms'

How inspired . . .

The sentiment set is called 'Cherished'

Again ... so inspired . . .

I sure hope you will join us this week for lots of inspiration

and of course, you can save 21% on your order.

You have until Sunday, April 21st to use this very RARE DISCOUNT !

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to hearing from you.

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Hootenanny by My Mind's Eye
Stamps: Hope Blooms & Cherished by The Craft's Meow

Embellishments: gems from Recollections

Happy Mother's Day !

Thank you so much for stopping by The Open Window today!

This is just a super-quick post to share the card I made

for my mom for Mother's Day.

I actually haven't had an opportunity to give it to her yet

as she spent the day with my step-dad taking 

a drive on a very beautiful, sunny day.

She stops by my blog quite often, so hopefully I am

posting late enough that she will have it in her hands

before she actually pays a visit : )

You've seen this design here before as it was one of last month's

releases over at The Craft's Meow.

The flower image is from 'Beautiful Spring' and the sentiment

from 'To My Parents', both from TCM.

I layered the flower by stamping it several times on this

beautiful designer cardstock from SEI.

The embossed frame is by Sizzix.

The photo definitely doesn't do the colors justice.

I love the design and know that I will use it again and again.

On a complete DIFFERENT subject....

Today was a big day in our house as my husband Paul's

lifelong soccer team, Manchester City won their first

title in 44 years!

I literally took pictures directly from the television

throughout the 90+ minutes of the game.

It was definitely a nail-biter as in the....

our team managed to tie the score and in extra-time...

We came up with the result we needed!

Be thankful I shared the abbreviated version because I

snapped over 75 photos!  LOL

Thanks for swinging by....I'll see you soon!

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Couture by SEI

Stamps: Beautiful Spring & To My Parents by The Craft's Meow

Embellishments: pearls by Recollections

Tools:  Wreath EF by Sizzix, Big Shot

Beautiful Spring with The Craft's Meow

The day is finally here  !!!

The designers at The Craft's Meow have been so looking forward

to this week of new release previews.

It's extra special because TCM is celebrating our

first birthday!

Over the next four days, we will share previews of 1-2 sets

each day and to make it extra fun, we will have a challenge available

for you to participate in so you can join the celebration

and have a chance to win prizes & a possible

GUEST DESIGN spot with TCM!

 For all the details, check out the TCM Blog.

Here is our first challenge....

A beautiful sketch challenge by our creative

Amy Tsuruta.

The first two sets we are previewing were designed by the very talented

Nina Brackett of Nina B Designs for TCM.

'Beautiful Spring' & 'Mother & Father' are perfect for this time of the year.

For this card, I stamped a base with a gorgeous floral image from the

'Beautiful Spring' set in Latte & French Roast ink by A Muse Studio.
All A Muse Studio inks are available directly to your door from
my web store HERE

They are the perfect shade to match these papers from Echo Park.

I used the Fancy Tags Two & Standard Circle dies from Spellbinders

to create the focal points.  How beautiful is that butterfly...also from

the same stamp set.  I adore Nestabling by Want2Scrap and thought

it was the perfect embellishment for the sentiment.

I love the 'vintage-style' florals of this paper and hope it's ok
to share it with the folks over at CARDS/Create for their
'Vintage Florals' Challenge.

 How would you like a chance to win one of these stamp sets before they

go on sale next week?  All you need to do is visit our designer's blogs and
make sure to leave a comment over on The Craft's Meow blog.
You'll have until 9pm PDT each day to leave your comment and the winners
will be announced the following day along with the next preview & challenge.

We would love for you to play along with each challenge during our
1st Birthday Bash...all the details are on the TCM Blog.

I'd love to hear from you....please leave a note & make sure you leave
a contact address so I can say hello back.

Enjoy the bash!!!

Project Recipe: 

Patterned Paper:  Graceful from This 'n That from Echo Park
Stamps:  Beautiful Spring & Mother & Father from The Craft's Meow
Ink:  Latte & French Roast from A Muse Studio 

Embellishments:  Nestabling by Want2Scrap, pearls from Recollections

Tools:  Fancy Tags Two & Standard Circles die from Spellbinders, Big Shot

Sharing Inspiration for Your Mother's Day Weekend

Happy Saturday to you!

Many of us are thinking about Mother's Day

and scrambling to make cards and 

find just that perfect gift.

I struggle when it comes to gifts for my mom.

She is a pretty 'simple' woman

who really does require much and what

she does need, she usually goes out

and gets before anyone else can.

So to be truthful, I am still trying to decide

what it's going to be.

To help inspire us all, 

I thought I would share this lovely creation

made by Mona Pendleton of Cupcake's Creations.

As you know, she is my friend and colleague

as a senior designer over in

The Play Date Cafe

and this was inspired by this week's

color inspiration photo.

Mona is also on the 2010 Spellbinders Team

and they have featured this wonderful card

on their blog/forum as well.

Here are the colors again for you to see.

She did a fabulous job, didn't she!!

So here is what I want to know....

How will you celebrate Mother's Day?

Are you ready with a gift or are you still

searching or creating?

Do you have a favorite Mother's Day

memory that you could share?

Please leave a comment and let me know.

It's always so lovely to hear from YOU!

Happy Mother's Day, Mum!

It's Mother's Day this Sunday....over in Great Britain.

'Mothering Sunday'....it's called and this card is getting

ready to go in the 'post' today.

(I am now channeling my husband)

I believe my mother-in-law will love this bright and cheery greeting...

at least I hope so.

If you BOO like I do, you may recognize this DP

from Making Memories...yep, it's 'Chloe's Closet'.

I just used a variety of border punches including 

Martha's Eyelet and Fiskars.

I used a little 'weathered wood' Distress Ink

from Tim Holtz around the edges 

to give it a bit of depth.

The crochet flower is GCD's Artsy Urban

and the center is My Mind's Eye.

Finished off with a few rhinestones and ribbon

with a sentiment from Studio G.

I apologize for the quick post...I am working on

the design team announcement and challenge over at

The Play Date Cafe which is very exciting!

I noticed that we have had a record number of

players this week!  YAY!

There will be a very fun opportunity for you to

win a fabulous prize, so stay tuned to this station!

One more thing....I SO appreciate your comments,

please let me know you were here.

A simple 'hi' will do   : )