Thank God It's Friday!!

I don't know about you but this is kind of how I feel.  What a week!  Sure am looking forward to a little R&R and more specifically a little time in my craft room.

Made this card for my Dad for his birthday.

And then made this version for my uncle, his twin, aka "Daddy Bill".  

I kind of messed up on his - or should I say my Copic marker messed up - it dumped ink all over as I was coloring the recliner.  So I did a little trimming and "presto!, magic!" a creative deviation was born.  Can't really decide which version I like??  How 'bout you?

Have a great weekend Gal Pals.  See you back here next week.

Hearts Come Home

My Honey-Bunny is coming home tonight - YEA!!!

Thought I'd share the birthday card I made him back in December.  It looks a little busy here (maybe it was in real life too??)  I tried to do more layering and textures than I normally do and use up some of the metal embellishments in my stash.  Also wanted to use the heritage 6x6 paper pack I bought a long time ago because it reminds me of all the genealogy work he does.

Getting near the end of week.  Hope you enjoyed the beautiful day yesterday.  Maybe we'll have another today?  Let's hope!

Birthday Presents

Well all my pinning is starting to pay off.  Here's a birthday card I made for my Aunt Hazel's birthday next week - she'll be 84!  

It was inspired by this card I found on Pinterest and pinned to one of my boards.  I used some leftovers from that $4 Walmart paper pack and a Martha Stewart bow punch that's been collecting dust for quite a few years.  I even got brave and did the polka dots on the ribbon and bows by hand - benign essential tremors and all! :-)  

I hope she likes it.

Soaking Up Love

Isn't this stamp the cutest?!  It's an Art Impressions stamp called "Edna Soaking".  Staci had it at the shop on Saturday and graciously allowed me to stamp it a few times.  It is so perfect for my Mom - who had a birthday this weekend by the way.

Happy Birthday Mom!  I hope this year is full of good health and mobility.

Ever since Mom's decline with mobility and especially during rehab, she's talked often about really missing being able to take a bath.  I wish I could give her the Calgon bath pictured here as her birthday present.  But for now it will have to just be in the form of a funny card.

I lucked out and got to see both Debbie and Staci at the shop this weekend.  They certainly had a full shop of wonderful crafty women and were trying to do inventory on top of it all.  I helped them out a little by snapping up some new arrivals and eliminating some product off the shelves :-).  It was great fun!

I've got another card I'll be sharing tomorrow featuring some of my new stash.  See you back here then.

Brads and Eyelets

Susan, over on the Simplicity blog, did some cool postings a few days earlier trying to use up some of her brads which she bought when they were more of a craze.  Check it out if you have the time.

I thought it would cool to do something similar with eyelets.  I don't know about you but I've got a TON of those still hanging around.

This card is from an old Card Maker magazine.  Thought it would make a nice one for Noah and maybe Bryton.  

I'm still perusing through those online archives of that magazine.  I've been taking screenshots of the cards and ideas I like and then pinning them to my Pinterest boards in hopes of being able to recycle all the paper versions of the magazines.  That would give me two more shelves on my bookcase for more craft supplies! 

Flying home tonight.  Looking forward to seeing my little guy but sad to leave my big guy.  I'm growing increasingly ready for all of us to be back in the same place for good.  Soon! 

Unlock the Birthday Fun

Update:  I ended up giving this card to Mom.  She's so silly about her birthday that I thought the "birthday fun" message suited her more.  Sorry Aunt Shirl'.  But hope you enjoyed the "Happy B'day" card from this post just as much.

Aunt Shirley - the aunt who makes the crochet flowers - is having a birthday next Thursday.  I need to get her card in the mail soon so I used one of the patterns out of the Paper Wishes kit I have with me.  The kit featured collage papers.  Aren't they kind of cool?

I followed the pattern exactly this time and even did the inside of the card. . .

Sorry the photography is so bad.  The lighting in the apartment at night is really bad.  Cricut Man was even making fun of me as I had to use wine bottle to prop up my backdrop and use the microwave light for the spot light.  Sure do wish I was home in the craft room :-(

Had a rough day yesterday.  Just really restless and out of sorts.  Nothing major and I shouldn't even complain as things are going so well with Allan and with Mom.  But it just seemed so hard to feel "normal" or feel comfortable.  We haven't been sleeping too well and I haven't been able to focus fully on work.  I can't even seem to find any mojo for any of the "special projects" I brought with me or calm my mind enough to read a good book.  Okay - enough of that!  I need to just get over myself and start today fresh!

Here's to "fresh starts"!!.  Hope you have a good one today.

Another from Paper Wishes

Here's another from the Paper Wishes card kit I have with me.  It was fun to make.  Nice masculine card don't you think?  It's hard to tell in this picture but the "Happy" part of the card is actually a pre-printed transparency sheet with different patterned papers behind it.  Definitely looks much better in real life.

And the one cool thing I discovered in making this was how cool the glimmer paper is - especially the blue and emerald green.  I think I might be ordering more of that very soon!

How was craft night by the way?  E-mail me with the details if you have time.  Always warms my heart to hear from home.  Can't wait to get back.  I take off at 6:30 tonight and land around 11:30 p.m.  Can't wait to see Maddie and snuggle down in my own bed for a few days.  Even if it has to be without Cricut Man.

Birthday Traditions

I don't know about you but I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys tonight, singing "Happy Birthday" to Mona and indulging in an Iron Horse cheeseburger!  Aren't birthdays a wonderful thing? - - - even when they're not yours!

Here's a card that I made for my Dad's birthday last month.  I tried a new technique I saw on Pinterest.  I used the Lovely As A Tree stamp set and a bunch of miscellaneous birthday sentiment stamps that I found in my stash.  I really liked how it turned out.  I may have to give it a try with some softer girly colors.

See ya' tonight.

More Scrap Cards

I guess I'm going to declare this week's post to scraps.  Here's a card I made from some scraps from the weekly family card.  It turned out so cute and I liked it so much I gave it to Val for her birthday.  I played around with some paper piecing on this one.  I just really wanted the image to tie in with this paper.  I like the coordination part of putting cards together.  Maybe because I'm not very good at collage type cards.  Coordinating color and pattern then becomes a way of stretching a little without getting too collage-gy.

Here's another version of the same card sketch.  Not quite as cute as Val's birthday card but still cute. 

Both cards gave me an opportunity to use some of the $1 Snag 'em Stamps from Imaginisce that Debbie and Staci sometimes keep up at the counter. That's what I like - impulse items you have to buy but you're only out a buck!

Butterfly Punched Flowers

This is a card I made for Val during the height of all her bad breaks life was throwing at her.  The tide has started to turn a little but it's slow building momentum.  Let's hope smooth sailing is not far around the corner. 

I made the flower on the card at the shop on Tuesday this winter.  It was a technique I read about somewhere out in blog land.  But you basically take the Stampin' Up Butterfly Punch and punch 5 images out of double-side paper.  Then you fold them a little off center and interlock them and attach them to a circle that's been backed with score tape.  Attach a big decorative brad in the middle and "Ta-Da!" you've got a really cute embellishment.

The stamp is one of the little cuties from Stampendous that Memory Lane has been carrying more of.  I love them!  And the sentiment was so perfect for this card.  The paper was from one of the 6x6 Lime Twist paper packs - another of my favorites that the shop has been carrying.

And since I had a few punches and scraps on the craft counter after I made this, I threw together one more. . . .

The flower on this one I didn't get interlocked as well so it looks a little different but I curled the paper more which gave it some more dimension.  But I loved the paper and color combinations.  I think one of the neices will get this one for their birthday.

See ya at the shop later today.

Scraps #13

This post was on my favorite Clean and Simple blog, Simplicity.  Thought it was such a clever and elegant way to use up some coordinating scraps.

Had a good time at the shop last night as always.  It's fun to think about the possibility of Val spending all day there in just a couple of months if she so desires.  Can't even begin to imagine what the life of retirement leisure is going to feel like for her.  Lucky, lucky lady!!

Here's the link to the Stampin' Up Clearance Rack I was telling you about.  The designer paper I had at the shop last night is gone but they have another couple of cute sets and boy! at 3.99 that sure seems like a good deal.  Let me know if you need anything.

Card Creations #1

Sometimes it's so much fun to go back to the very 1st cards I ever made.  This one was a copy-cat card from the very first issue of Card Creations.  I think they are now on #9.  This was obviously back when eyelets were big - remember that?  And I love the cheezy, cheap, Michaels card stock.  The flower punch was one of my one and onlys for a long time.  Used it on everything.  Hard to believe looking at my current stash that there was ever a time when I only had 1 punch.  :-) 

Short on time this morning as we've got an early appointment on campus for WellCheck.  See you tonight.

Remember When. . .

Remember when we were baby card makers and taking lots of classes from Jen at Angie's place?  I ?think? this is where we got this pattern from.  I used it here for a Father's Day card.

All I remember is that I made a bunch of cards for different themes from this pattern.  And I think it was a "go to" pattern for Faythe and Val too.

Here's another of the same sketch with a birthday theme:

And yet another that was my Christmas card one year.

Have a great day today.  Only one more day until Friday and the weekkend - YEAH!!

Scraps Day #8

I think this week's scrap card is really cute.  I love the texture of the embossing on the left side plus the stitching which anchors the "flags" to the card.  Hope you enjoy both the card and Wednesday/Hump Day.

Scraps Day #6

Here's another cute idea for a card made with paper scraps.  I stumbled on it while looks a this blog.

Sorry about the missing post yesterday - we were having internet problems at the house. 

I missed my Gal Pals at the shop last night.  Hope Mona is having an excellent adventure somewhere and I hop Val's mom is feeling better real soon.  But Staci and I had a great time catching up.  And I spent my time picking out matching cardstock for all the S.E.I. papers I'll be using for my Christmas cards this year. 

Hope your Wednesday is a good one.  See ya' back here tomorrow.

The Queens of Everything

I think we've done it Gal Pals.  Between the 3 of us I think we own everything in the Stampin' Up catalog!!!

I got the order keyed in last night and with any luck it will be delivered Mon or Tues afternoon.  I'm really hoping I can bring you your stuff on Tuesday night.  What fun that would be.  Keep your fingeres crossed for good shipping & handling service.  It outta be the best in the world for what they charge!!! 

One fun piece of news. . . .we have 2 extra Sale-a-Bration stamp sets for our shared collection that we weren't counting on.  Remember how I said that if the "workshop" went over $300 that the "hostess" got an extra SAB selection.  Well the system kept telling me I needed to pick 2 more free SAB sets.  I double-checked our individual orders and they were OK so the only thing Marcia and I could figure out is that you get a free one for every $300 inncrement.  So I hope you don't mind that I picked for us.  In addittion to Tart & Tangy, I picked Engraved Greetiings (Click here to see the SCS Gallery) and Three Little Words (Link).

Now that we own every stamp in the world, I thought it was only appropriate to post a birthday card that did not use one single stamp :-)  This one Mona did must have been before she made out her SU Wish List! With all the new toys on the way, I'm guessing we won't see another like this in a very long time.

Have a great day.

P.S.  THANKS to both of you for getting your stamp sets up on the blog.  Val - looks like you had a busy night on the laptop last night :-)  Glad the instructions worked.  I'll worked on gettiing our new shared sets updated.

For the Men in Our Lives

Here's another birthday card from Mona that has a bit of a masculine appeal to it.  Love the clean, simple lines of the card and the touch of metal really balances it out.  Also love the use of the patterned paper as part of the focal point of the card.  I plan to keep this in mind for those pretty papers that I have that just need to shine on their own and not be covered up by layers or a stamped image. 

See you tonight.  And hopefully the weather during the drive home won't be as bad as last night.  Eeesh! was that ever an adventure!

Birthday Easel Card

Happy Monday My Gal Pals,

Hope you had a good weekend.  Mine was pretty good.  Spent 3 hours on Saturday morning putting together my Stampin' Up order.  Tried my best to control myself and set a firm budget but just like congress I kept raising the budget ceiling! 

But I'm pretty happy with the collection of tools and supplies I ordered and was really excited to see how much I was saving with this one-time 30% discount.  Guess I can justify it if I don't spend another dime on craft stuff this year! :-)

Continuing on with the Birthday theme I started last week, here's my first attempt at an easel card.  I made this for my Dad's birthday in December.

Love this color combination for a masculine card.  I intended for the big brads to be the way to hold up the easel part of the card but I guess my measurements must have been off because it made the card front lay too low.  Thank goodness the sticker border had some thickness to it.  Learned lots about what to do and not do for the next one I make.

And here's the sentiment I put inside.  It's also a wish I'm sending to you today. 

Have a good Monday! See you tomorrow night.

Sunny & Bright

Another birthday card from Mona's stash.   Love this one for a couple of reasons. . . Yes - most obviously for the ric-rac! :-) . . . but also because of how sunny & bright it is.  I think I might have mentioned the other day that I've been finding myself drawn to yellow and wildly bright colors lately.  I think it's because it's February in Missoula and I need a way to balance out the gray in our lives.  One last reason this card is so cool is that it could be called a Quick & Easy "Scrap" card.  A scrap of paper, some scraps of ribbon perfectly placed with a simple sentiment and embellishment.  This one's a keeper for sure!

Birthday's Galore

I don't know about you but the month of February is packed with birthdays of friends, family and  co-workers.  So as I was looking through inspiration cards, I found Mona's stash of cards we took pictures of many months ago.  There are some really cute ones in there so I thought I'd post a few to get me in the mood for all that I need to make in the next few weeks.

This one is one my favorites:

Mona - hope you had a wonderful and romantic birthday dinner with Doug at the Pearl last night.  We'll look forward to hearing about it Tuesday.  And can I ask a special favor?  Can you please bring the card Val made you for your birthday?  I'd like to take a picture of it for the blog. 

Have a great day today!