valentine's day (easy) treat boxes

Here's a free printable for those of you running a bit behind and it's free!
All instructions and downloads available at the FedEx Out of the Office Blog. Go check it out!

I have a fun announcement for tomorrow which I think you'll like. See you then!

lots of petals

I thought of posting the photo of a white flag at some point this week (nope, not kidding) but I decided you'd appreciate flowers a bit more. Take them as my "I'm giving up on my summer blogging" for the next few days image. I know if I don't do this now I'll regret not focusing on the kids while they're still on their break. We just have a few more days together. It's always a bitter-sweet time of the year.

So... for now I'm waving my white flowers.

This is my new Lots of Petals collection.

I've been designing and collecting the shapes for the last couple of months and I finally think it's ready. It includes 8 types of flowers that can be mixed and matched amongst themselves or with my Petals or Summer Blooms collections.

Oh yeah... and yesterday we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary! Yeah for us!

Love my Mr. Z!

I hope that you're enjoying your week. See you in a few days!

• • •

EDIT :: My apologies to those of you that received my August newsletter without appropriate links!! Here is the link for the desktop for this month (has no calendar—so it can be used at any time of the year).

I'm trying

This summer I feel so off. The whole work/kids schedule is still not really flowing. To-do lists are helping, but I wanted one that was really in front of me while I work. I'm using a standing work station that I love, but as you can see the top shelf is getting a bit crowded.

The minute I saw this frame at Ikea I grabbed it. All I did was place a printed piece of my Mod Stationery (the one intended to be a note card) in between the two acrylic pieces of the frame. I'll be writing on the outside with an erasable marker. Presto—a handy to-do list holder!

Cost of the frame: 99 cents!

• • •

As promised my printable Mod Stationery is now available in the shop!

4th of july star place cards

I don't know about you, but when I'm full of mental cobwebs, my creativity flies out the window. Instead of making anything new, I spent the last couple of days building my gift tags stash, using recently ordered stamps. It was very therapeutic.

Today, mental balance has returned (phew!) and I'm in a 'better give than receive' mood.

Seeing so many 4th of July projects has seeped through, so I worked on this simple place card project that you can either cut by hand or with a cutting machine. It's a new freebie for you!

If you don't celebrate the 4th of July, you can still use the cards to help decorate any occasion for the stars that brighten your life.

I called them place cards but they can also be used as gift tags or food labels (I've also heard them called food tents—right?).

Download files here (PDF, SVG & DXF files are included).

Enjoy!

day 25 - mini dollhouse tutorial

I didn't want to finish my 26 days without making the beds I promised little C—so here they are!

I made a new house (also her request—"We need another house for friends!"). The house is the same design, with added window frames and a punch of color on the door.

She saw it this afternoon and literally squealed. The look on her face was all I needed as a thank you. She completely lit up.

And guess what?
You can make your own too. Today I have another download for you and it's here.

(PDF, DXF and SVG). Since I set up the PDF files on letter-sized paper the house will be a bit smaller than you see here.

Little C set up the photo below.

"Take a picture! Take a picture!"

Ok! Ok!

TIP - I forgot to mention something in the handout. The first house is much stronger because I cut and glued two houses one over the other (with Spray Mount before assembly). I completely forgot about that for the second one. The difference in strength is quite noticeable—so that may be something you consider doing.

Enjoy!

• • •

This is part of a my 26 days of making series.

petals collection - svg & pdf files

It's finally here. I felt like I needed just one more flower. Just one more. I didn't get the inspiration until yesterday.

Surrender is the word that sparked the thought of the last flower design (the red and white one). I was in the car listening to an interview with Shriley McClaine. At one point of the interview she said that one of the biggest lessons she's learned in life, is to surrender. It took me a moment to ponder that and then boom... the flower came to mind. I have no idea why. About 60 seconds later the design was complete in my head. I couldn't wait for the kids to be in bed so I could work on it.

You just never know when inspiration will hit and what will trigger it. Just surrender—I'll need to remember that one.

The flowers are a lot of fun to make! I didn't want to shoot for life like flowers—there are enough of those everywhere in the paper craft world. I wanted to just try my own thing. You know me... I'm all about solid colored paper, but these would also look great with patterns and maybe buttons in the center of each. The possibilities of customization are really endless!

The PDF and SVG files are now available in the shop.

happy new year!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful year!

If you'd like to send anyone a new year's message here is the file for the 11 card. I know... it doesn't quite look like numbers but that's what I like about it. It's subtle and you can use it at any time of the year and maybe add some weaved ribbon through it.

Downloads :: SVG file | PDF

You'll excuse me while I go back to some very laid back time with the family. It's been slow around here and I love it. I think we all needed it.

Happy 1.1.11!