Birthday cards

My boss's birthday was at the end of September, as was one of my co workers, so I made them cards.
Here's my boss's:

 It's an envelope card, so when you fold it up, it looks like an envelope. I used some book spines paper for the front, along with some words to spell out her name.
Here it is all folded up:

 I had this planned out perfectly, I had this paper so it lined up when opened, not thinking about how it would be upside down when folded up. I used the book washi to close it, but of course it wouldn't stay closed, so I had to wrap some twine around it as well.
Here's the inside:

 I realized as I was making this, I'm glad I was giving it to her in person as there is three layers of cardstock on it, it was pretty heavy. My boss is a tea drinker, so I tried to go with a tea theme on the inside. I had to add the pink/purple washi (from Dollar Tree) to cover the whole inside piece. The 'the best chats are over a cup of tea' piece is from a journaling card. The 'happy birthday' piece I took out of a card from a swap. I realized I don't have a lot of birthday stuff when I was making this. I wanted a not so busy background, so I picked the daisy paper for it. The left side says Happiness is something that multiplies when shared, it was from a journaling card that I layered on some pink paper. The top has a teapot sticker (by Mary Engelbreit from a thrift store, as well as the teapot on the bottom), with a sticker that says Enjoy your life (from Dollar Tree). The right side has some teacups (from JoAnn's) with a sticker that says Happy girls are the prettiest-Audrey Hepburn (from a Peachy Cheap grabbag). The bottom says Do what makes you happy (from a journaling card) and a teapot.
Here's the one I made for my co-worker:

I wanted something simple because I know she doesn't like elaborate. The background is from a swap. The middle piece is from Hobby Lobby. I used some star buttons from my stash to make a bundle of balloons with a 'make a wish' sentiment.

I like making cards, I just am really bad at getting them done before people's birthdays.

Loaded bag swap

I did a private swap on one of my facebook groups. I asked if anyone would like to get a loaded bag of planner supplies. I told my partner anything but religious and planner. I've been getting a lot of planner stickers in other swaps and I don't do the whole planner thing, so I thought I'd send them on to someone else.
Here's what I made:

 I've been trying to use up the flower paper that I have picked up recently, but not used.
Here's what it looks like empty:

 Two different floral papers and a sticker from Dollar Tree.
Other side:

 Again with the tho different papers and a flower sticker. I really need to create one where I decorate the outside more.
Here's what I put in it:

 The 'week' sheets are from my Lollipop box for the last two months. Most of the stickers are from swaps, I did pick up a sticker set from Target and took some out for her. The stamp set is from a swap. The list paper is from my Lollipop box, the pen from a garage sale.

 I believe pretty much everything is from swaps in here.
I was thinking there wasn't enough in it, but I'm not anymore.
Here's how I wrapped it up for her:

And here's what I got from my partner:

 Apparently I also should have said no glitter or Halloween either.

 Here it is mostly empty. All these pics were sparkly, which is why it's still lying on the tissue paper, it was shedding like crazy.
Here are the goodies:

Like I said, I don't feel so bad about mine anymore. There's a couple cards, three different notepads, a bookmark, a tag, a sheet of stickers, a pin, a wand and a card.

Screw it and Do it Challenge 3

Here's the rest of my Screw It and Do It Challenge #3:
Day 9, 9/23/17:

 My little notebook that I've been putting these in is so stuffed full (at and this point it was only halfway in), this page fell out and I had to tape it back in. They are all scraps from trimming papers. The middle wasn't really attached, so I found a mini card (from a local store) to put over it. I Thought the tag looked good at the bottom, so I attached it with foam tape. I added the 'love' washi as a finishing touch.
Day 10, 9/24/17:

 I found the background scraps on my desk, had to add the 'book' paper to fill up the page. I wanted something vintage, so I used a photo of the dog and his boy. I glued it down with glitter glue (from Hollar) making sure the glue spilled out around the picture. I added clock washi to the top to finish it off.
Day 11: 9/25/17:

 The background and tea paper are left over from a birthday card. The acetate flower piece is from Hollar, the words are from a journaling card. I used foam tape to attach the flower piece.
Day 12: 9/26/17:

 I pulled out the pineapple paper for something bright. The 'is it bedtime yet' scrap conveyed my feelings at the time. The 'memories' piece had the right colors for the page. I trimmed the birthday cake to fit the space left.
Day 13, 9/27/17:

 The background paper is from a paper pad from Spellbinders. I saw the keys and thought they'd be good to start with. I wanted something not busy for the background. The 'holidays' piece just worked for the piece. The butterflies gave it a little color (from Hobby Lobby).
Day 14, 9/28/17:

 I had bought a foam monsters kit at Hobby Lobby that day, so spent my 10 minutes creating monsters. I plan to give them to friends for Halloween.
Day 15, 9/29/17:

The background was laying on my desk, I used the thin pencil washi to fill the page. I attached the 'halloween' tag with foam tape and spent the rest of my 10 minutes looking for something else to add to the page, I never found anything.

Ice cream pocket letter

I like ice cream, so I signed up to do an ice cream pocket letter in one of my facebook groups. Here's what I made:

 The backgrounds are some journaling cards I picked up at Hobby Lobby the other day. The washi on the side is also from Hobby Lobby.
Top row, first card: the ice cream is from a banner from a swap, the 'you're sweet' banner is from a swap. Middle card: the stickers are from a swap. Last card the ice cream is from a banner from a swap.
Middle row: The cards are from a swap, I just added some stickers from Target to cover up part of them.
Last row: the Lisa Frank stickers are from Dollar Tree, the large ice cream sundae is from Dollar Tree, the 'I scream for ice cream' is from my August Lollipop box club box.
The back:

I included page flags, stickers from sheets I used on the front, some sticky notes, a paper clip, some bling, some washi.
I like how it turned out.
Here's what my partner sent me:

 LOVE IT!!! It's so upbeat and so much is going on on it. There's so much dimension and layers and glittery stuff.
Here's the back:

Again, so much stuff. Love all the stickers and the washi and the bling.

Mermaid file folder pocket letter

One of my facebook groups had a swap for a mermaid themed file folder pocket letter and it sounded interesting. Basically you take a file folder, staple a pocket letter inside it and decorate.

I picked up a plain file folder from the bookstore for a whopping 20 cents. Someone said they were going to send one to me, it never showed up and she said she'd send out a 2nd one, never saw it, so I just bought one at the book store. I also picked up a mermaid coloring book to use on this:

Here's the front:

I painted the file folder with some blue and green paint that I've had forever. I used to always pick up paint when it was on clearance on JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby, but I don't really use it anymore. After stapling in my pocket letter, I covered up the staples with this shiny green tape from Dollar Tree. The grouping in the corner is from a swap. I colored the mermaid with some crayons and used a marker for her hair. I also added my partner's name in gold letters.
Here's the back of the front cover:

 The videos I watched added an envelope to this page. I remembered this gift bag I got at TJ Maxx, so I cut it in half and glued it in. I put my bigger goodies in here. At the top I added some leftover paper from the back page. I also added some washi from Michael's on the side.
Here's the pocket letter:

 I think I need to take a step back from mermaid stuff for awhile. This pocket letter is very flat, it's just all stickers with a die cut in the middle pocket. I added some sandy looking paper to the bottom with some sea stickers. The 'wonder' is a chipboard sticker from my stash. All the sea creature stickers are from Dollar Tree. The top two mermaids are from Michael's. The die cut is from a swap and the bottom mermaid is from Dollar Tree. I'm not as excited about this as I am about the file folder.
Here's the back:

I included some tags, a lot of mermaid/under the sea themed stickers, some green/blue washi, and a pile of sticky notes.
Here's the back page:

The background looks like weathered wood, it's from the Newsworthy paper pad from Hobby Lobby. The sea turtles I cut out of a card. The heart shape is from a swap. The die cuts are from a swap. The mermaid is from Dollar Tree. The crab sticker is from Dollar Tree.
Here's the back of the folder:

I just put down a lot of water themed paper, covered up some ugly spots with other paper and added the whale sticker.
Here's what my partner made me, the front:

 The inside:

 The back of the pocket letter and file folder:

 The back of the file folder:

I love the coloring technique and the use of the Graphic 45 paper.

A, B, C tags

One of my facebook groups is having an alphabet tag swap, the first group was A, B, and C.

Here's what I created:

I decided to use vintage dictionary paper as the background and just add stickers that coordinated with the letter.
A: alien from Dollar Tree, ant from my stash.
B: Banner from Dollar Tree, bee from Hobby Lobby, bird from a swap
C: coffee from Dollar Tree, cactus from paper from Hobby Lobby, camera epoxy sticker from a Peachy Cheap grabbag.
The letters are from Dollar Tree. I added eyelets and some twine to the top.

I've already started on D. I plan to keep the vintage dictionary paper theme, sadly I'll have to use different letters for the next batch as I don't have an E on this sticker sheet.

Here's what my partner made:

I'm loving that cat/cactus one.

more pocket letters

Here's a few more pocket letters I've made. I just bought these new paper pads at Hobby Lobby at the end of July and I needed a reason to justify buying them, cause I certainly don't need more paper.

 This one is from The Pink Passport. The background paper and the girl are from the paper pad. I basically cut the girl out and pieced her together on the background paper. The washi on the side is from Dollar Tree, the Eiffel tower keychain is from Salvation Army. The scooter is a chipboard sticker from Hobby Lobby. The flower pot is a paper pieced stamp from Hobby Lobby. The perfume bottles are from a magazine ad. The 'bonjour' is spelled out in silver letters from Walmart layered on some mint and then purple paper.
The back:

 some rose flowers, bling, die cuts, washi, handmade by stickers, pearl bling, a set of clear stamps, a perfume paper clip and some teal pearl bling.
This paper pad is called Fruit Tart:

 Everything except the pineapple, lemon paper, and orange are from the paper pad. The orange and 'tangy' are from a folder from my stash. The pineapple is from a swap. The lemon paper is from a swap. The strawberry, lady, watermelon, and popsicles are all on top of the plastic page.  I didn't want to cut them apart, so I just put them on top, I sent this flat because I didn't want to crease the lady. The washi is from Hobby Lobby.
The goodies:

The magnetic watermelon clip is from Target. The flower paperclip is from a swap, I made the watermelon one with a dollar tree sticker. The strip of stickers are from a garage sale. The oranges are from a folder. The middle pocket was closed because the lady was so big. The pear, watermelon, blueberries, and apple are all mini sticky notes from Target. The top two washi are from Hobby Lobby, the third one is from a swap, the fourth one is from Michael's. The pineapple patch is from a swap.

Both these paper pads were computer weight paper, so not the best quality but I really liked the patterns. I tell myself, I have to like at least half of the patterns to buy it.
I try to theme my goodies to the front of the pocket letter. I try to always send some of the washi I used on the front of the pocket letter.

Here's another one I made with both of these paper pads. The theme was flamingo and pineapple, so I used flamingos from the Pink Passport paper pad and pineapples from the Fruit Tart paper pad.

 The background papers are from the two paper pads. The flamingo pieces were from a swap. The pineapple in the top row is from a journaling card set from Hobby Lobby. The two pineapples in the second row are from a swap. The pineapple piece in the bottom row is from my Lollipop box club box from August, I also added the palm trees from that box to it.
Goodies:

First row: pineapple from a swap, sticky notes from a swap, I always put my letter in this pocket.
Second row: buttons in pink and yellow, washi tape (I didn't have any flamingo washi tape), scraps of pineapple background paper.
Third row: random stickers, paper clips, scraps of flamingo background paper