Cards for our Troops

I've always wanted to participate in sending cards over to our troops but haven't had the time with E's treatment. I finally made the commitment to do 10 cards. It's not much but at least it's a start. Right now they're asking for holiday cards with BLANK insides so the troops can use these cards to send back home to their loved ones.


Knowing not everyone celebrates Christmas, I did 5 Santa cards and 5 snowmen cards. I figured the snowmen were pretty generic to use if someone didn't celebrate Christmas. The inside of the Santa cards say "Merry Christmas" and the snowmen cards say "Happy Holidays." I decided to jazz them up a little and use crushed velvet for the snowman's scarves and hats and for Santa's hat and coat.

I appreciate each and every member of our armed services for keeping our country safe. They put their lives on the line every day because that is their job. Thank you!

Women of Life

For E's teachers, I made each of them a special card to say thanks for all they've done for her and for us. I used Papertrey Ink's Women of Life set.
They were all simple to make and it was enjoyable to do the paper piercing. I need to work on the straight line part though! The yellow and green one kind of went a little off kilter!

Birthday and Mother's Day

I struggle with a "stash" of cards so I am usually making one right before an event. Here is the one I made for my MIL's birthday:

I LOVE this sheer ribbon with the DCWV glitter paper! The stamp is paper pieced and stickles were used on the present's bow. I also used my dew drops to accentuate the bottom of the card. She LOVED it!

How do you "get ahead" with cards? Do you find a simple forumula and then make a batch of them? Tell me your secret!!

Birthday Card

Seems like the last couple months have been birthday central: S's 3rd, DH's XXth, E's 5th and mine coming up Saturday.

Lesa has a card challenge and here is my entry:

I used the cupcake from a PIF thread over on SCS. I was so excited to finally be able to use one my images just sitting around in my stash! I even used the Liquid Applique for the first time. Haven't decided if I like it or not. What do you think?

Thanks for the inspiration Lesa!

Kim's Creative Corner Challenge

I'm a faithful reader of Kim's blog and decided to take her challenge. I love her owl card here and that black and green color inspired me to use the same colors on mine.

Here's mine:

I made this for a good friend of mine who is so thoughtful. Since my daughter was diagnoised with cancer, she has been checking in with me, just to see how she's doing and making sure I'm alright. She also coordinated meals after we came home from her surgery in NY and decorated our house! I know that if I need any help all I have to do ask. She ROCKS!

Over the Hill

My SIL was turning 40 and I knew I needed to make a card for her. I'm not the humorous type (that would be my hubby) but needed to make a card that had a little both of us in it, i.e. humor and elegance!

This is what I came up with:


It's a spinner card where the car "drives" over the hill. She loved it and I like how it turned out. I used Ranger Glossy Accents to make the car shiney too:

Hanna Stamps

Have you seen Riley and Sophie? I absolutely LOVE them! I haven't had much time to play with them (working on 35+ baby shower invitations!) But I couldn't resists inking up two of them!

I made this card for a little girl we met up in NY at the Ronald McDonald House while Emily was recovering from surgery. Her birthday was this past weekend and I couldn't resist sending her a card with Sophie G! I used my DCWV Glitter paper, Copics and even added a little glitter to her swimsuit.

Riley I just wanted to color! Of course after I colored I HAD to put him on a card, right? I tried the tutorial for Reverse Topper (Melanie's Blog) and I'm pretty happy how it turned out. I don't have a Coluzzle so I used my CM cutting system instead. I still have to work on the patterned paper fitting correctly but I'm not picky since it was my first one! I do wish I had taken a picture of the INSIDE before I mailed it. Oh well. Live and learn, right? Again, I colored Riley with Copics, paper is CM.

I might be a little AWOL for a couple weeks. I've got to finish these baby shower invitations tonight and then clean house as my MIL is coming to visit. Of course the day she leaves my grandmother and sister are coming so I may not get to post for a couple weeks. Depends on if I can sneak some crafting/stamping time away from them!

Have a great week!

Valentine Gifts DONE

I fully expected to have a great weekend creating however, having my dear husband come down with some sort of flu like illness really put a damper on my time and creative juices. Instead of gating myself up in my scrap room, I ended up taking care of both DH and DD. See, DD had chemo on Thursday and by Friday and Saturday she ended up having her first side effects. :( Add that with DH being quarintened in our room (can't risk E getting what he has otherwise she'll end up in the hosptial), the kids were ALL MINE during the day.

So, I made up for it at night. I stayed up until 1AM each night (including right now when I should be SLEEPING) to get the girls Valentine's Day gifts completed along with DH's. See, I was terrified that I would end up sick like him and not having any time to finish theif gifts. I only have two things left to do: Print out the saying for S's card (Whoooo love ya?) and buy some chocolates/candy to fill their mailboxes.

Here they are:

Here is a close up of S's card. The matting is crooked! :( Do you think my two year old will notice???

I used copics for the first time too! I only had a few, so I had to make due but I LOVE them and need more. If I could just get my hands on the glitter ones...

And a close up of E's card below. She really loves cats right now so this is fitting for her! I again used the copics for the cat. SU ink for the You're Purfect and embossed it with clear powder to make it pop more. The colors didn't really come out right because some of the dots on the paper are the same as the mat. Gotta figure that out.

Thanks for looking! I'll post DH's book in a day or two.

Valentine's Day Cards

I'll admit I'm a slacker. But I have good reason! We've only been back from Disney World a week tomorrow and work has been crazy. So I've not had the energy to play with paper as much this week.

Since it's Friday and my dear husband is out for the night, I decided once I put the girls to bed to make our Valentines to mail out this weekend. I used Rochelle's instructions found off the Score Pal site here. I made mine REALLY simple (only stamping on the front and inside) and just added a matted photo of us from Disney. I did embellish the heart on front with Diamond Stickles (dontcha LOVE Stickles?).

I'll write Happy Valentine's Day on the inside tomorrow before I mail them out. But I need help. I can't decide if I should keep the bow (as the above closed one) or not (below photo). If I don't keep the bow, is it too plain or do I add something? Give me your thoughts.

Recipe:

Paper - The Paper Company, GP

Ink - Brillance & SU

Stamps - Studio G

Misc - MM Staples, Stickles

Better Pictures!

Well, I think I did. You be the judge!

I think I have finally found a setting on my camera to take good photos of the things I've been doing. Tell me what you think.


Ready for the setting I used on my camera? FOOD! I have a Panasonic DMC-F27 that has all sorts of great modes on them. So, while my family was out of the house, I decided to play around and see which one came out best. I tried Auto, Portrait, and even Macro but the Food setting turned out the best!




Incendently, this is also my FIRST Criss Cross Card. It turned out pretty well so I decided to do another one.

But it's missing something isn't it? What do you think I should add to finish it?