The last of the birthday cards

Yes, you read correctly, this should be the last of the birthday cards for a little while.  Now I need to focus on scrapbooking and Christmas cards! It's a never ending cycle, but someone's gotta do it... lol!

I needed several guy cards and the retired Well Worn dsp tends to be my 'go to' paper for this.  I'm not sure what I will do when it's all gone!

I found a similar card here and only slightly modified Paula's design.  I liked the simplicity of the design, yet there are a lot of layers on this.  The original actually had 7 layers, but I didn't want my cards to become too heavy. I hate paying extra postage!  I adjusted the design by making the dsp layer into split pieces.  This eliminated the need for another layer of the blue cardstock on top of the dsp.  My final layer count was 5 layers, which is still quite a bit for me!  I must have been channeling Kelly at Sandcastle Stamper!! She is the queen of many layers and her cards always look fabulous!!

We just got back home last evening from another successful Kids Camp.  My laundry hampers are overflowing and the grass looks like it could be cut and baled instead of mowed...  Probably not much crafting going on here for a few days, but I'll be back on Sunday with my DT post for Anything But a Card.  

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a marvelous week!!

Card Recipe: Paper-well worn dsp, early espresso, not quite navy, soft suede, cajun craze, river rock, Ink-crumb cake (distressing), early espresso, Stamp Set-Apothecary Art

and another one's down...

Another one bites the dust!  Yep, I am still on my Pinterest card kick, and I'm happy to say that I've made another card based off of a pin!  Now, DH can let me waste my time on the computer knowing that all of that pinning and blogging is being put to use!  I am as likely to convince him of this truth as the one about making my own cards will save us money since we won't have to buy cards! Tee! Hee!  Even I can't keep a straight face on that one!  But enough of my rambling, on to my card!

I took inspiration from Lydia's card, and the only

change I made was using pastels to color the

flowers instead of re-inkers.

It was quite therapeutic to color all of those leaves and flowers-something I needed after a week of purging the closets and dressers...  I really like the soft effect for an anniversary card.

I had a bit of a reality check this morning as DD#2 mentioned that it is less than a month before school starts.  What?!  I am really longing for the good ol' days when we didn't start school til after Labor day and were finished by Memorial day...  Quite honestly, I don't think today's kids are that much smarter!  

My posting may be a bit patchy since there are still many things I need to finish before I head back to work.  There is a light at the end of my tunnel of cleaning, and I really want to reach it before all of my duties kick back into play.  Wish me luck and have a fantastic rest of the week!!

Mission Impossible!

Hello and happy 4th to all of my fellow Americans! I am so glad you came by to visit today!  I actually have something crafty to share with you, and it's not even a DT project!!

I had decided at the beginning of this summer that our home needed a major clean out.  We are hoping to build in the near future and I thought that not only would it get rid of things we don't need, but it would also make moving a little easier.  I should have called this Mission Impossible...  I have lost count of the number of trips we have made to local charities donating what was still usable, and don't get me started on the things that were simply tossed.  You would think that my home would be barren at this point, but I keep finding more and more things.  This is the main reason my poor blog has been less than busy.  But now I'm finding that I really need that creative therapy more than ever!!

I have also been on a card making mission this summer.  Seems someone has infiltrated my home and confiscated my stash of birthday cards (no, I didn't throw those out).  Either that or I actually had a lot less created than I initially thought...

Normally, I will look at the SU catalog, or some of my other cards for inspiration, but since I spend a lot of time on Pinterest and blogging, I thought I needed to use some ideas from these places to warrant all of that time!  If you would like to see any of the fun things I've pinned you can click here.  This will take you to my Pinterest boards page.  Both of my cards from today were designs borrowed from Pinterest.

You can see the inspiration card here.

I pretty much CASEd this one!

While I couldn't find the direct link to this card,

if you click here, it will take you to the person who 

created it originally.

I have to share my luck on the balloon die I used to make the second card.  Last month, I had my new SU order ready to enter and was excited to be buying the balloon framelits so I could start putting some cute balloons on my cards and scrapbook layouts.  The girls and I had stopped in our local Good Will store to check out the book selection for our summer reading pleasure.  I always browse the whole store because you never know what you might find.  Imagine my joy when I found a basket full of sizzix dies!  I ended up buying three dies-a wood sign, a picket fence, and balloons.  How much did I pay for these? $4 for all three!!!!!  Needless to say, I removed the framelits from my order since I was pretty sure that I could get the other die to work pretty much the same way.

I am really trying to use my scraps and retired supplies more in an effort to decrease the mountains, and both cards used the retired Summer Smooches dsp, and the balloons are all from my scrap bucket.  Even though you can't really tell that anything is gone, it makes me feel better that they've been put to good use!

Well, DH has built a campfire and the family is calling me to join them!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

I've been cheating...

Have you ever put together a few cards that were SO simple that you felt like you were cheating?  Well, I have always heard of people doing 5 minute and 10 minute cards, but put them in the same category with unicorns, comfortable dress shoes, and tasty calorie-free treats!  So I was a little shocked when I managed to knock out not one, but FOUR cards in about ten minutes-and most of that time was picking out my papers...  CRAZY!!!!

I also have a confession to make.  I know that Project Life is huge right now and there are so many people doing amazing things with these kits, but I cannot get into it!  I have tried several times to create those 'in a few minutes' scrapbook pages and spent over an hour trying to decide just how to make things work for me.  Since Stampin' UP is offering many stamps, kits, and supplies in the new catalog, I felt like I needed to give it another try.  I am still not sold on the scrapbooking part (I really like my big blank canvas approach), but I can see the benefit of using the kits for cards.

I used the retired Everyday Adventure kit to make my super simple cards.  Many of the papers have blank spaces for titles or writing.  This makes stamping really easy! Then all I had to do was trim the 4x6 pieces, attach them to my card bases, and add a little embellishing (or not!).

This card used another piece of pattern paper, 

two strips of washi, and I even used the piece

I cut off of the 4x6! No waste at all!!

                                                                                                                                                                     

I added a puffy 'doodad' sticker to this one.

The strip cut from the second card found its 

way to the bottom of this card.

 !

And this one doesn't have a single thing

added to it, other than the sentiment!

I'm still in a minor state of shock over how quick this went and how much I liked the finished cards.  Nice and flat for mailing too!  No lumpy cards here!!  The papers in this kit worked so well for the masculine style I was needing, and I'm sure the guys won't miss the ribbons and embellishments!

While I'm sure I won't give up my more traditional card making, it is nice to know that if it's crunch time, I can make a card (or four) in under ten minutes!

It's another busy day for our family tomorrow and this Mama is getting sleepy so it's off to bed with me!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  It makes my day a little brighter knowing that I'm not alone out here!!  Have a fantastic week!

Take a Hike! with Anything But a Card

No, I'm not telling you to get lost (unless you enjoy doing that on a hike!) or anything like that!  I'm sharing my creation for Anything But a Card's challenge 'Out and About'.  We are inviting all of you creative people to share what you love about the outdoors.  It could be celebrating the seasons, nature, your favorite place, vacations, cookouts, or any outdoor activities!  The choices of inspiration are as big as the great outdoors themselves!

My family loves to spend time camping and hiking, so my DT project is a scrapbook page about hiking in one of our favorite places.  We usually hike in the spring or fall when the weather is a little cooler, and the bugs are a little less active.  The photos I scrapped were from the fall, so I chose fall colors for my page.

I have not scrapped in a while and it took me a little while to get my muse in gear!  It took longer to pick out the papers than it did to put the thing together!!

I think most of the page is pretty easy to figure out.  The only thing that was a little more involved was the red leaf.  I used the autumn accents die to cut the leaf, creased the cut leaf in half and ran it through the woodgrain embossing folder.  I inked up all of the edges with some crumb cake ink to make it more earthy!  Easy peasy!

I hope you will make time to share a special outdoorsy project with us this week!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Anything But a Card-Out and About

Have you ever spent days cleaning and organizing and just felt like you supplies were crying out to you?  This has been my reality for the past week, especially when I cleaned up my crafting space!  I am suffering from creativity withdrawal...  Very soon, I hope, I will once again be back at my table!

While I don't have anything that I've created to share with you, I do want to share our latest challenge at ABAC.  Maybe you will find some time to join in the fun!

The new Challenge... "Out and About". For Anything But a Card Challenges No. 48 use the great outdoors as your inspiration to challenge your muse; celebrate nature, your favorite place; World Environment Day June 5th; the seasonal colors at your place; or just having fun outdoors. Summer time is here which is everyone's favorite time of year - time for vacations, camping and cookouts! Use your muse to create whatever our prompt "OUT and ABOUT"inspires you to make {remember no cards}. Now it's time to gather all of your creative goodies to come out and play.

I have lots of ideas running through my head for this one and will be sharing with you on week three!  Hope to see you (or at least your creation) there!

The last of the graduation cards

I think this year just might be the record breaking year for graduation parties!  Guess that's what happens when your oldest is in high school!  Because of the number of celebrations, I decided to make a few multiples instead of many individual cards (time crunch, anyone?!).  I did manage to personalize them a bit with school colors and changing the background pattern paper to fit the recipient's interests when I could.

Both of the cards shown are the same basic design and I also made a few more that used this same style.  I decided to show two of them to share how to make a unique card without changing the layout.  The first one used book print paper paired with the spiral punch for a general academic feel.  On the second card, I swapped out the words for music note paper.  This made an easy, but personalized touch for the musical graduates.  Even swapping out paper and ink colors can give a more individualized addition.

Of course, I'm sure most of the grads were more pleased with what was on the inside of the cards, but it made me feel a little better about giving something personal to go with the cash and gift cards!

I have been quite busy cleaning and organizing this past week.  My goal is to purge/clean out the entire house by the end of June.  Wish me luck!!  We are hoping to have some solid plans in place very soon to finally dig our basement and prepare for our new home!  I can't really call it 'moving' since our new house will still be on the same property that we are currently living, but the less things I have to relocate, the better!

Well, I better get back to work, but I will be back soon to share some new creations!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

  

A little Word Play to start my summer

Hello! I am so very happy to announce that my summer vacation has officially begun!  We had our final day lunch meeting today and now I am free for a few months!  We still have softball sectionals going on, but other than that my days are filled with laundry, weeding, and other very neglected chores!

Of course, this also gives me a little play time as well so I hope to be posting and visiting more often!  Today's card was made last week, but I'm just now getting around to posting it.  This is a graduation card for a special young lady.  Not only is she family (my cousin's daughter), but she was also one of my preschool students a few years ago (must be super smart to graduate so early! wink!).  I made her card in her school colors and thought this sentiment from Word Play fit perfectly.

                                 

It was so much fun to pull out my supplies and make individual cards again since I haven't done this for a while!  I'm still a little behind on my birthday card making so that will probably be next on my 'to do' list.  Well, at least the one that I actually want to work on completing- the housework one? not so much...

I have a few more graduation cards to share with you but will save them for another day!  Until then, I hope you manage to find some time this week to make something fun!

Card Recipe: Paper-night of navy, whisper white, cherry cobbler, Ink-night of navy, cherry cobbler, Accessories-perfect polka dots ef, cherry cobbler seam binding

Anything But a Card- Inspired by a Master

Hello! I am so glad you stopped by my blog today! This month, Anything But a Card Challenges has a fantastic challenge (well, every month is fantastic, but I REALLY like this one).  We are encouraging you to choose someone you admire artistically and create something based on that inspiration.  This could be one of the famous masters or someone amazing that may not be world renown. 

I knew immediately who my inspiration would be.  When I was in college, I took a few art history classes and absolutely fell in love with Monet.  I was even fortunate enough to see the traveling Monet exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago when I was fresh out of college.  There is just something so amazing about the blurred lines and gorgeous blends of color in all of his creations.  The most difficult part of this challenge was deciding which work to use as my inspiration piece.  I finally chose his Iris paintings, mainly because the irises are currently blooming in our yard!

Here is one of the Master's Iris paintings...

This is actually an oil painting and my creation is more of a watercolor, but I think the inspiration still shows in my ATC.  I also did not have an actual iris stamp so I have a 'sorta kinda' purple iris thing in my garden.  I'm sure Monet wouldn't mind my creative twist at all!

I used soft sky, pool party, and marina mist inks with an aqua painter to make the background.  The flower was stamped in wild wasabi and elegant eggplant inks and then lightly brushed with the aqua painter.  It was a lot of fun to make my version of a Monet painting, and I really hope you will decide to join us and share your favorite!

Almost there...

It has been incredibly busy here, but freedom is just around the corner!  Between tennis, softball, choir, school, and home, spring is always a busy time of year.  Add to that some crafting projects for the softball team, and thank yous for my niece's wedding, and it gets borderline crazy!  However, the thank yous are finished, the last of the softball projects are almost ready, and there are only five, count them, five glorious days of school left!  I really cannot wait for the first day of summer break!

As I mentioned above, my niece (actually my husband's niece, but we're all family here!) was recently married.  I helped a little with her shower decorations and offered to make the thank yous for her wedding.  It was a bit of an assembly line production since she wanted 100 of them, but I managed to get them all completed and boxed on time to give them to her at the wedding.  I'm not going to share a photo of the thank you just yet, as a courtesy to the bride and groom, but I do have the wedding card I made for their special day.

This was incredibly easy and I almost feel guilty claiming I made it!  I used a piece of wisteria wonder cardstock and embossed it with a heart folder, then I simply added a premade wedding embellishment that was in my stash.  Easy peasy!!

Well, it's another crazy day for me so I gotta get going! Thanks so much for stopping by today!