Something's Gotta Give

So, I've added to my ever expanding list of activities by going back to school.  After taking a year off from school, I am just a handful of units away from getting my Bachelor's degree.  Since I'm still working full time, everything school related comes after a long day of work.  So needless to say, I'm not so excited about going back to the late nights of reading and seemingly endless pages of typing.  BUT, for being so close, I know I would always regret it if I didn't finish out this last leg of the race.  So back to school I go.

Unfortunately, just because I'm going back to school, doesn't mean I get more hours in the day to make that happen.  I still have the same 24 hours to fill with work, homework, crafting, housework, and occasionally sleep.  So Hubster has stepped up a bit more than he already does (he is amazing, might I add, when it comes to chores around the house.  I am SO lucky.) and crafting has to take a bit back seat until I can get that seemingly ever elusive piece of extremely expensive piece of paper to hang on my wall.

Still have a couple orders in the works, but for the time being, I may not be able to experiment as much as I want with all the extra stuff.  I'll still be bringing you some awesome pics of the cards and crafts that I can squeeze in.  But I just thought I would share with you some of my current distractions. And actually, this blog being one of them!!  I sat down to do some research, and I some how ended up here, typing out a new blog post... lol.  I suppose I should get back to that...  Articles aren't going to research themselves.  Until next time... Happy Crafting!!

Adventures of the Pink Embossing Powder

So, I fully intended on making this weekend into Crafting Madness, and locking myself away in my craft cave and creating little bits of magic.  I got home on Friday, fully inspired and ready to go.  I sat down with the description of the order and got to sketchin.  After planning with the Cricut Design studio a bit, and busting out my box of markers, I had these invites down.  So Stoked that I actually planned everything out without even breaking out by boxes of scapbook paper, my usual inspiration.

So after 2 hours of planning, sketching, and coloring, I head into the craft cave and dive into by supplies.  No pink embossing powder.  No biggie, right?  I'll just swing by Michael's and pick some up, gotta get some feathers anyway.  So at 8 pm, I venture out to Michael's.  Luckily they were having a clearance sale on glitters/embossing powder.  Unluckily for me...  they were picked clean.  The only powders left were ones I already had.  It's okay, I'll just run across the street to JoAnns.  But when I get there, they don't even sell embossing powder!!!!  By this time, it is 10 minutes from closing and I am sent home without the most important aspect of my invites.  Though, I was able to get the feathers without any difficulty.

Back in the craft cave, I start laying out the feathers and ribbons on the card, and I am totally bummin that embossing will have to wait another day.

But Saturday, was Amelia's day.  The Hubster and I headed out for a visit with Amelia and her fam bam, giving the new Mom and Dad a break from the feeding and diaper changes.  Another day without crafting.  But...  I'll admit, totally worth it.

So today was the day.  Today I would scour southern Orange County for some pink embossing powder.  Went to a different Michael's first...  nothing.  I'm startin to get bummed since there is only one other Michael's craft store that I know of in my area.  With a slight delay of lunch with the Hubster and a friend, I continued my search for the elusive pink embossing powder.  With fingers crossed, I walk over the the stamping section... no pink.  Martha Stewart was my last hope for this store...  Headed a few aisle over, holding my breath, I find bright pink, sparkling embossing powder!!!!  Woop Woop! Victory!

But, on our way home from the craft store, the food coma from lunch hit, and before I knew it, I was waking up from a nap and it was 5:30pm.  Another day without massive crafting.  It's okay though.  I have something to keep me pushing though my day at work.  Anticipating the moment that I get to come home and craft. 

So on the eve of another Monday, I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!!!  Stay safe and dry out there... the weather is pretty intense over where I'm at.

Fifty, Fuschia, and FABULOUS

I am definitely excited to see S. Ell Designs starting to take off.  Just finished a custom order for birthday cards, and I must say that I am so proud of how these cards turned out.  I had a little trouble getting my ideas off the ground at first, but then everything just clicked.

A very special lady in my life wanted some birthday cards to celebrate with her friends for a, shall we say milestone, birthday.  And I was more than happy to fulfill this request.  The only thing, they had a theme...  Fifty, Fuschia, and Fabulous.  Since most of the cards I've been doing lately have been for babies, most of my supplies consisted of pastels and neutrals.  So back to the craft store I went.

But of course, no one has to drag me into a craft store or two.  When I go, I usually spend an hour or so just wandering around the aisles, getting ideas and inspiration.  And on occasion will go to one, two, or three craft stores in one trip just to make sure I have everything I need.  Or, at least everything that I think I need.

1 Card for $3.50 or 3 for $9.75



1 for $3.25 or 3 for $9



1 for $3.50 or 3 for $9.75

 Each card is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 and includes a beige envelope.  Card inserts have been left blank for the card givers to add their own personal sentiments.

Like what you see and want some for yourself??  Email me at s.elle.designs@hotmail.com and let's talk about your custom order!

Little One

This last weekend, we welcomed little Amelia into the world.  One of my bestest friends of all times had her precious little baby girl this weekend.  I was so excited to see my friend and to finally meet this new little one.  BUT FIRST, I had to make a card to welcome Amelia.

Even though I knew the baby is a girl, I still went with seemingly generic color scheme.  But the reason I chose pink, blue, and green, is because it matches the colors in Amelia's room.  Which is so freakin adorable... might I add.

So after scribbling some notes and sentiments on the inside of the card, I was off to go help Mom by cleaning her house a bit, since Amelia was earlier than expected.  I am so excited about the addition of this precious little one into our lives.  And forsee many many birthday cards on the horrizon...

Baby Shower, Flowers, and Cards

So much of my time lately has been spent on the planning and preparation of a baby shower for one of my dear friends, Misty.  She and her husband have ASTONISHING will power, and have decided to not find out the gender of their baby until the little precious boopshie arrives and surprises the world.  Thus, the baby shower was of gender neutral colors; it was a little difficult, but yellow and green are some of my fave colors.  You may have seen in previous posts the green and yellow cards and treat bags, so we had to have some coordinating flower centerpieces as well. 

I thought, green, yellow, and white flowers, what a cinch!!  But it was actually kinda difficult to find flowers in my area that looked decent in this season.  Probably had something to do with all the rain we've been having this year.  But thanks to Ralphs and Costco, I was able to put together 3 large and 3 small centerpieces.

I must admit, when I started to assemble the first arrangement, I thought, "What the heck did I get myself into?  There is no way I can pull this off..."  And considering it was the night before the shower, I was startin to get a little worried.  So I told myself, this will work.  This HAS TO work.  And thankfully my head clicked into gear and I whipped these out.

All of the roses opened up by the morning, looking full and gorgeous.  I was so stoked that they filled out.  This was one of my favorite of the smaller centerpieces.

About two weeks ago, the Scrapbook Expo was in my area, so I went with my sister and one of my co-workers (owner of Delo Designs).  We had an uber blasty blast, but were exhausted by the afternoon.  We all came out with amazing things and eager to bust out crafts with our new toys.  I rediscovered some cool techniques I had forgotten about, and found out new about new toys, like a letterpress.  Which will be my next toy...  **wink wink, Hubster**

The Hubster and I also attended a wedding last weekend and I thought it would kinda be against the rules to give a store bought card, considering I'm trying to start my own card business.  So this was another whip something together card. 



You can't really tell, but CONGRATS is embossed in black.  Silver swirls were also embossed


Their red, black, and white wedding was GORGEOUS! And so so so much fun.  It was great to see a lot of the Hubster's friends from the marines again, and nice to finally get to meet some of the wifeys.  There were lots of pictures...  and lots of drunkennes... lol  But all in all, it was a beautiful wedding, and lots of congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. 

I just had to use some of my new toys from the expo, so I embellished the insert on the card

Without fail, when I walk into a craft store, I find stacks of paper that I feel I just cannot live without.  So my stash of paper is borderline getting out of control.  Before I got to the Scrapbook Expo, I told myself, that I would absolutely not buy any paper, what so ever...  But, as I'm sure you could guess, walked out with almost more paper than I could carry.  Thankfully, just after the expo, I had an order for Thank You cards so buying all that new paper felt justified.

After scouring the interwebz for card ideas and seeing demos of people blending borders on their designs, I just had to try it out on a card of my own.  One of my other co-workers was thinning her crafting collection, and graciously thought of me.  So I decided to give it a whirl.  I think it turned out pretty good.

I spent most of my morning getting my craft cave organized, so I have a renewed passion to get in there and make stuff happen.  Plus... I have orders coming in, so I have to get it crackin.  But I'll leave you with one last picture.  One that was snapped quickly with my phone, but gives me an uber big smile...

Just a little peek into my world of crafting.  I can't wait to make more stuff happen and to share it with you!  Until Next time...