Big Time Busy and Announcement!

I feel like we are always saying how busy we are, but today I can honestly say that Lisa and I are two super busy ladies.  School started on Monday, so Lisa has been busy working in her classroom and attending meetings (last week) and has been getting to know her sweet Kindergarteners this week.  Crossing my fingers that today went well since it is the first day she has all 23 students.  Whew...talk about tiring.  5 months pregnant and keeping track of 23 kiddies is hard work!  You go girl!

As you read above I said Lisa was preparing her class, not me.  That is because my sweet baby boy is HERE!!!  We had quite the shock when he decided to come 4 weeks early.  Cameron Russell was ready to meet his parents and Aunt Lisa!  All is well and he is absolutely precious.  I am home with him for now and loving it.  One thing I have been working on is his birth announcement.  They turned out super cute and I'm excited to share them with you.  I found the original idea on Pinterest and made them my own.

Front of 5x7 announcement

Opened announcement with birth info, picture and initials

Birth Information

Picture and Initials

We have a few specials that we will be posting about soon, but for now enjoy a picture of my sweet boy!

Love those chubby cheeks!!

Happy Crafting! Lisa and Jess

Gift Card Holders

Do you ever feel like giving a gift card is a bit impersonal?  I have heard that so many times from people.  I understand why that is said, but I totally disagree.  Giving a gift card is a way for you to give someone a way to pick out exactly what they'd like.  I would much rather receive a gift card that I can spend on something I really want than a gift that I will never use.  I have received many gift cards are shower gifts lately and love being able to go to my registries and order exactly what we still need.  

Though I don't agree with gift cards being a bad gift, I do agree that so many times their packaging is just plain boring.  Many people don't pay attention to the envelopes or ways their gifts are packaged, but I do.  I love pretty paper and ribbon.  Lisa and I have enjoyed making gift card holders the last few years for Christmas.  We have posted some of our past creations on our Facebook account and you should definitely go check them out there.  

Here is a new one that Lisa created this week for a soon to be momma!  I think it's very cute and any mom would love to receive a gift card in this adorable holder.  :)  I'm a bit biased though.  

Gift Card Holder with inset inside

Gift Card Holder with insert pulled out

I hope everyone has a great weekend and make sure you check out our other gift card holders on our Facebook account.  We are also interested in making them for any occasion you might have.  :)  

Happy Crafting! Lisa and Jess

Birthday Cards and Big News!!!

It has been a while since we have taken the time to create cards for fun. We have had orders for wedding invites, bridal shower invites, birthday invites, and occasion cards within the last few months, so we have been busy little bees getting those done. Of course we love our work so we get satisfaction from designing and creating for others, but it was so nice to sit together today and make cards for our own card collections! :)

We did have another reason for working on cards today. I (Jessica) am only 5 short weeks away from my due date. Yep, Baby Kessler will be here before we know it. It's hard to believe but so exciting! But, not only am I quickly approaching my due date, but Lisa is 15 weeks pregnant!!!! Yay!! She is due on December 30th. How wonderful is that? Our sweet babies will grow up together. It is a very exciting time for us, but it will be hard for us to keep up with sending birthday cards out in the upcoming months, so we decided to stock pile some cards.

 It was so much fun to work on cards today and the company of each other was even better. Here is a look at some we made today. I should say that some of these ideas are ones we took and put a twist on to make them ours.

Make a Wish

Layered Cake

Textrued Birthday

Squared Make a Wish

Cute Cupcakes

 Happy Crafting! Lisa and Jess

Lemons and Limes Bridal Shower

Happy Tuesday!  We are so excited to share these adorable bridal shower invitations with you.  The bride, Samantha's theme is lemons and limes, so we felt inspired to create something unique and fun for her.  We were able to find paper that looks just like the peel of a lime.  That really added a lot to the invitation.  The two colors together really pop, especially for a late summer wedding.  These invitations did make me crave a margarita, but I can't have one of those right now.  

We hope you enjoy the process from beginning to end.  :)  

Just a few of the supplies we needed to get started.

The invitations themselves are 4x6.  The flap at the top adds character to the invitation.  

Little limes were a great addition to the invitation.  We used the same paper, so it all coordinated together.  :)

Aren't the limes just adorable?  One of my favorite parts to the invitation.  

It took some time to get the font and spacing just right for this one.  Having the flap that comes over the top and the lime took some creativity with the printing, but it turned out perfect.  

Almost done, just need to add the ribbon.  

Finished product!!  

We are so happy with how these turned out for Samantha's bridal shower.  As I say every time we make something, "I think this might be my favorite so far," so I guess it is for the moment.  That is until we make a new invitation and I fall in love with that design.  :)

Also, we now have a Twitter account:  @SimplyBInspired.  You should follow us.

Happy Crafting! Jess and Lisa

Fun, Crafty Gift!

Happy Thursday!  I don't know about you, but I'm so excited that tomorrow is Friday and that's it's a 3 day weekend!!  That is great news.  :)  Anyway, on to the crafty stuff.

Lisa and I try to create creative and homemade gifts for people in our family and our friends each holiday season.  This is one that I made for my 15 year old sister.  She can be difficult to buy for because she's a teenager and her mind changes constantly.  Also, when I make her a gift I want it to be something she will enjoy to look at, but that won't just go up on a shelf and be forgotten.  Here is what I came up with this past Christmas.  She loved it.

It's made out of a mini acrylic "scrapbook."  I used a bunch of paper scraps I had laying around that were bright and colorful.  I knew she would love all the color.  Below is the cover of the mini book.  It's only about 2 inches by 3 inches, so I couldn't fit much on it.  I thought "life" would be a great way to begin.

My sister is finishing her freshman year of high school tomorrow, which is crazy to think of, so this scrapbook is a summary of that year.  She loves to get creative posing for pictures with her friends as you can see below.  I used modge podge to seal all pictures and paper, so if they got wet they wouldn't be ruined.  I was worried it wouldn't work on the acrylic, but it worked very well.

These pages are just more personalized pictures and designs for her.  I love the stripe I did with the picture of her cheerleading friends.  It matches their uniforms perfectly.  So fun!

This is just one fun idea we have used to scrapbook.  There are so many more that we want to try, but one at a time.  We look forward to showing you some of the other ideas we have come up with to show off your favorite pictures.

Happy Crafting! Jess (and Lisa)

Lemons and Limes Anyone?

When life hands you lemons and limes you should make margaritas!!  But since that's not the type of business we are in we make invitations instead!  :)  Saturday was a day full of busy.  We designed and finished some occasion cards, created some baby shower invitations, and designed some really fun bridal shower invitations.

We were asked to create some bridal shower invitations with a lemon and lime theme.  How fun is that?  The colors go so well together and make sure such a fun end of the summer wedding.  The young lady we created them for is a long time family friend to me.  We grew up together and she is like a little sister.  I felt honored to be asked to design invitations for her.  We found some of the coolest paper that actually looks like the peel of a lime, so that was a must.

Lemon and Lime Bridal Shower!! 

This invite sample is fun with the two different patterns.  

They add a lot to the design and make the invite a little more fancy.  

This invite is plain and simple, but the cute lime in the corner screams party!  

I honestly have to say that his one is my favorite!  I love the lime textured paper and the cute ribbon over the scallop edge.  Pick this one!!!  :)  

We can't wait for the decision to come in on these invites!

Happy Crafting! Jess

Celebrating Moms

Tomorrow marks a very special holiday...Mother's Day!  It's a day not to be forgotten.  We are both close to our mothers and don't want the holiday to go by without thanking our mother's for all they do for us!  We wouldn't be who we are without them.  

Also, Mother's Day couldn't go by without us making cards for those special women in our lives.  Here are the cards we created for the occasion.  Hopefully they have received their cards already and we aren't ruining the surprise.  :)  

We bought a few new paper packs a while back and had so much fun using some of the paper for each of these cards.  

This is a simple design that is fun due to the different colors and patterns.  

The patterns give it depth.  The flower also adds texture to the card.  

This card is full of color.  I (Jess) am definitely our bright and crazy color designer.  :)  This card definitely shows how much I love to use color.  I love the different layers of pattern.  Buttons always add a fun dimension too.   

This card has a picture of my mom!  I felt she needed to be displayed right on the card to show her how much she means to me.  This card uses her favorite colors (obviously since every color is present) and is a bit crazy in design.  

We wish every mom out there a very happy Mother's Day!  

Happy Crafting! Jess (and Lisa)

Owl Book Themed Baby Shower

Wow have we been busy.  School is ending in only five weeks and those weeks including lots of district and state testing, as well as, a bunch of orders that have come in just this week.  We have so many great ideas for our orders and can't wait to get started on them.  

This post is for a very special person, Jess, my crafting partner and best friend.  When I found out that she was pregnant I was hoping she would let me host her baby shower.  We set a date for it and I began designing invitations to match her "Owl" Nursery Theme.  

These are the four samples I made for her.  I had a lot of fun making each of them.  Her favorites were the round one and the one on the right. She decided to go with the owl on the right side of the picture.  It was time to get started on making them!  

She asked me several times if she could help, but I refused to let her.  She wouldn't let me help with my bridal shower invites ;)  I did enlist my sister and mom's help with gluing since I am not used to doing a large order on my own.  

The owl's body was so easy and turned out really cute when I embossed it with circles using the Cuttlebug.  Also, I used a scalloped edge punch to add a dimension of extra feathers.  **Note-don't look at the mess in the background.  I told you we've been busy  :) **

The heads were cut out on the Cricut and folded in half. 

 For something so cute, it's great for it to be somewhat easy to make.  

Owl Baby Shower invite with the wings closed.  Jess loves how the wings cover up the majority of the invitation hidden inside.  The colors go so well together.  Jess is using turquoise, gray and orange for the nursery, so I wanted to incorporate those colors.  

Owl Baby Shower invite with the wings open.  

The theme of the shower is not only owls, but books.  Jess wanted to get her child started off right with a bunch of books for his library.  Each guest is asked to bring a children's book of their choice instead of a card with a note written inside for the baby.  Such a fun idea and a way to always remember your guests.  This is a bookmark we created to match the invitation asked the guests to bring a book.  The guests will get to keep the bookmark to use with their own favorite book.  

Other than this adorable order, we finished beautiful blue and yellow wedding invitations and some samples for a fishing themed first birthday.  Can't wait to post those pictures for you to see soon!  

Happy crafting!  Lisa 

So many cards, so little time!

We apologize for the amount of time it's been since we last posted.  It's amazing how quickly time flies.  We have been busy designing holiday cards, wedding invitations and so much more.  Here is just a few samples of cards we have been working on.

Layered Christmas Trees holiday card

Minnie Mouse birthday card

Birthday Wish using candles

Ho Ho Ho decorative frames

Anniversary card

New Home card

We have so much more to share with you, but they will have to come next time!  Can't wait to share then with you.  Please check us out on Facebook:  Simply Be Inspired.

Happy Crafting! Lisa and Jess