Celebrate the Day That Gave Me You

Tomorrow is February 1st, and my husband Joe's birthday. I don't make too many man cards, and of course, this is a very important one. I decided to use SU's Outlaw DSP (retired) and Verve's Mojo Monday Sketch #122 for my layout. I love this sentiment and hearts on a vine image from Verve's Love's Flower. The sentiment is stamped on Choice Buttercream cardstock from Taylored Expressions with VersaFine Vintage Sepia. I colored the hearts and vine directly on the stamp with Soft Sage and Really Rust markers, huffed and stamped. I added some sparkle to the hearts with a gold atyou Spica Glitter Pen. I spent a good bit of time fussing with the color arrangement for the base and matting... I tried several combinations of Soft Sage, Chocolate Chip and Dusty Durango along with a few other brown and rust shades. I finally settled with Chocolate Chip, Soft Sage and Dusty Durango for accents.

Our boys made their own cards for their Dad. He will love them. I made this mini pizza box to hold one of Joe's gifts - a Panera gift card. We actually intended to give him a gift card to go to The Soup Man ("No soup for you!!!") in Princeton, but their computer was down when we went to get it, so we plan B'd it and went to Panera. Anyway, you can find a tutorial for this adorable little box HERE. It's so cute, and makes a great package for little gifts. The box is Chololate Chip, decorated with Outlaw DSP. The circular stamp is from Verve's Accent Notes, and the sentiment is from Verve's Dad's Day. It will be an early birthday breakfast tomorrow. I am off to wrap other treats for the birthday man. Thanks for stopping in today.

Vintage Valentine

I recently found the wonderful Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, and there I met a new friend - the wonderful and talented June Houck of Simply Elegant Paper Crafts. Vintage Valentine Be Inspired #68 challenge is to create a Vintage Valentine for your someone special. Well, this was right up my alley! Crafty Secrets is sponsoring this challenge - I LOVE their stuff!!! I already had the wonderful Crafty Secrets Cotton Scraps Romance collection in my stash. This and the luscious red silk ribbon came from Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Ribbon Store, and the ribbon treatment is one of Sharon's signature embellishments. I came up with this very simple card in the Stamp Simply style. The base of the card is Creamy Caramel. I used a hearts EF with the Cuttlebug to emboss the white panel, punched the corners with the Ticket Corner Punch, mounted it on black and placed half pearls in the corners. The main image is cut from the Crafty Secrets Cotton Scraps Romance Collection, matted with Soft Sage and again with black. I pierced under the image on the Soft Sage. I used the Bow Easy to make the bow. Do you know about this tool?? This is a MUST HAVE! Click HERE to see Sharon's technique for this ribbon treatment. Love is in the air! Have a wonderful day!

For the Love of Chocolate

I love this MFT set - Who'S That Chocoholic. It's funny, because I am not a chocolate lover, but so many people who are dear to me are. It is the perfect set for chocolate loving girlfriends. I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #57 for the layout.

This week's C4C Challenge is to design a card/project with a pink color scheme. I combined the two challenges to come up with this card. Both the image and sentiment are from MFT's Who's That Chocoholic set. The base of the card is SU Riding Hood Red. The DSP is SU retired Candy Lane. I paper pieced WTG and colored with Copics. The chocolates are glazed with a Sakura clear glaze pen to give them a little oomph! I really like this card and it is a perfect Valentine card for my friend and certified chocoholic, Dee. Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy Birthday Eugenia!!!!!

My sister Jane's birthday is today. I have three sisters - Jane is the first born, I was the last. Barbara and Lisa are in between. In my family, as I am sure is the same in many families, we have names that we made up for each other over the years that have stuck. We can't, for the life of us, remember where those names came from... I call Jane, "Eugenia". I could never tell you why. Anyway, this is her birthday card. I decided to use yesterday's OCC sketch for the layout.

The base of the card is SU retired Baja Breeze. The DP is BasicGrey Nook & Pantry. I used Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze for matting. The image and sentiment is from MFT's "You Take the Cake" set. The dress is paper pieced and the large polka dots on WTG's dress are cut and pieced with Rose Red card stock. I used Copics to color WTG's arms and the background on the image panel. The cake is frosted with white Liquid Applique. The candle flames are done with yellow Stickles, and the rhinestones on the sides of the oval are acid-free adhesive crystals from Hero Arts. The ribbon is Chocolate Chip 1/4" grosgrain. The button is from my button box and is tied on with SU Gold Elastic Cord. Happy birthday Eugenia! I wish you a good year ahead!

Feel Better Ms. Morales!!!

Ms. Morales is one of my sons' fourth grade teachers. We learned today that over the long weekend, she lost her appendix! What a crummy way to spend your three day weekend.!! So of course, we need to send her a card. I got right to work after school today. I love, love, love this June Bug DP from BasicGrey. I thought this quilt pattern was appropriate for this occasion - warm and cozy for recuperating... I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch 122 for my layout and inked up some Verve stamps from the Meditations and Circular Sayings sets - and voila!!!

The card base is Dusty Durango, and the panels are matted with Not Quite Navy. To go along with the quilt theme, I embossed the left panel of Crushed Curry with a quilt patterned EF. I stamped the Flower images three times, cut out the top two and adhered with dimensionals. The center of the flower is done with tiny gold glass beads with no hole that I got at a scrapbook convention years ago. That really added a nice touch to this card. Anyway, I hope it brings a little cheer to Ms. Morales and that she has a speedy recovery!!!! Thanks for stopping in.

Happy Birthday Peg!

Wishing you the happiest birthday Peg, and a year of blessings. My dear Friend Peg's birthday is tomorrow. While looking around for some inspiration for Peg's card, I came across THIS wonderful card by June Houck of Simply Elegant Paper Crafts. I decided to CASE it. I found June's blog via the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog yesterday. June's work is fantastic! Her Be Inspired #65 Cuttlebug Challenge Card HERE and HERE bowled me over!! I have so many scraps and papers that are retired and unused, so June's Thank You x4 creation inspired me to make this quick card that is perfect for any occasion. I love it and I am sure I will use it time and again. Thanks June!

Here are the ingredients:
Paper ~ White Paper Basics from Papertrey Ink, Baja Breeze (retired), Green Tea DSP (retired), Basic Gray.
Stamps ~ Verve's "Wishing You".
Ink ~ Versa Fine Onyx Black.
Accessories - Bigz Top Note die, dimensionals, Kaiser Pearls, 1/4 " white taffeta ribbon, Bow Easy, Ticket Corner Punch, 1 1/4" Square Punch.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Flurry of Love

I bought this adorable Pure Innocence set from MFT called "Flurry of Love" and have been wanting to ink it up. Our Creative Corner's Happy New Year Sketch Challenge today - SASSC46 - inspired me to use it.

I love this sweet image and I am pleased with the way it all came together with the sketch. I paper pieced the image with BasicGrey's Eskimo Kiss DP (I can't get enough of it!) and colored the face, stockings and background with my Copics. You can't see it in this photo, but I used a Versa Marker on the flurries and the snow beneath her her feet. I then hot embossed those areas with Hologram Highlights to give it sparkle. I used white Liquid Applique to puff up her hat and boots. I love it!