Happy Birthday x 2!

I always commiserate and complain about making boy cards. I just find them a challenge. I don't know why but I do. So I got hit with a double whammy recently when I had to make cards for a set of twin boys.  And they aren't little boys who'd like monsters and trucks...oh no...this variety was turning 30!  LOL!

So this is what I came up with to attach to a six pack of imported beers for each of them.  No Transformers, Thomas the Train or Legos for them!  It's beer.

I used some scraps of papers I had, a Simon Says Stamp metal die for the sentiment which I inlaid with a contrasting but complementary print, and some little EK Success punches for the banner.  

It was so fast and easy I duplicated it for Twin #2:

Happy and fun and appropriately boyish enough I think.

Here they are side by side.  Twins.

I would imagine neither paid a lot of attention to the card....they were probably more interested in the enclosed gift card and beer but I was happy with this boyish attempt!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 22

Well, I'm sort of officially caught up with Project Life.  Now....if you want to be specific I am one week behind but that doesn't even really count, does it?  I will get those photos tomorrow and whip those pages out so really....in my book I am caught up.  :)

Week 22 was very easy for me because we were all at the beach for a week. After my son popped the question to his girlfriend we tended to just stay on the beach.  We went from the condo to the beach...with an occasional trip to the grocery store.  I usually go to the Outlets or try to hit AC Moore but nope....didn't go anywhere....just hung at the beach and gazed at the water...played with the kids...

I didn't even walk as much as I usually do!  I just sat and vegged.  It was great and I am not complaining at all!  It was a fabulous week.

So...Week 22 was easy because I just printed a ton of pictures and slapped them in my book.  Yep, that's it....just one big slapping event!

Here's the left side:

My week and journaling cards were done with "Splash" by Echo Park....and yes, this was also leftover stuff from last summer's layouts I'd done.  Too much to toss and those scraps work perfectly for Project Life.  I even had a few stickers left that I put on a few of the photos....
Here is the Week Card....simple, simple, simple!

And here is the journaling card:

I made the little banner with some EK success punches I have. 
And here is the right side:

Not a word of journaling.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I am letting my pictures speak for themselves! :)  I just didn't want to cover these up with words....I decided you can tell we are on the beach and all the who, what and where info is on the journaling box on the facing page.

And that's my story and I'm sticking to it! :)

Happy Crafting!

Valentine Card ala' Archiver's Style

I went to Archiver's with my friend, Christine, yesterday to take the Valentine card class.  Such fun we had!  We did some heat embossing (always a FAVORITE of mine!), coloring with Copics, lots of stamping, cutting, fussing, adapting, grumbling... LOL!

Seriously, we had a great time and the cards were all cute and simple to make.

Here is the first one I'll share.  It was done with Technique Tuesday stamps for the sentiment and lamp and a Hero Arts stamps for the chevron:

What I loved about this was the cute little banner.  And guess what?  It was made with an EK Success punch.  It's a little punch and oh so cute.  It comes in a package with a triangular scalloped penant, too...which was so cute (how many times can YOU use the word "cute" in a paragraph?!) ADORABLE! And priced at $9.99 (and ahem....I did have a coupon!) it was a great buy! 
Here is how it is packaged in case you want to hunt one down:

Teensy little penants/banners...so stinkin' cute!

It's Monday....lots to do!  Starting with....grumble, grumble....laundry! :)

Happy Crafting!

Sympathy Card

The cards most challenging for me are cards for boys and men and sympathy cards.  I don't know why cards for boys and men are so tough...I get why sympathy cards are difficult.  There is a fine line between tasteful and over done, I think.
I made this card last night for someone who recently lost her mother and it came together pretty quickly.  I had seen new Cuttlebug embossing folders at Joann's that had a border strip with them.  I bought a couple and was wanting to use one so decided on this chevron which is called "Charles".  I don't know if chevrons translate to sympathy cards well but I liked the way this ended up.

 I used Papertrey ink paper, ink, and the die and stamp are from Mat Stack 3.  The sentiment is a Hero Arts sentiment which fit perfectly in the little space!  The butterfly is an EK Success punch.

 Not a great photo below but I was hoping  you could see the embossing.  I love this combo of the larger embossing folder and the smaller design on the strip.

And that's it for today.....
Happy Crafting!

I entered this in the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show: Challenge: Your Favorite (my favorites are dies with coordinating stamps)

And Yet Another Thank You Card...

Here is another card I made with my Silhouette.  The image is an iris and is a cut file by Hero Arts and purchased in the Silhouette store.  I thought it looked pretty against some purple Bazzill cardstock. I added some pearls and a little Stampin' Up ribbon and la dee da......a card!  The little sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages set and I cut the label out with an EK Success punch and then just added some Glossy Accents to make it stand out a bit more.
And that was it.  La Dee Da!  (Disclaimer: the ribbon looks bluish here but it really is more purple than blue or else I have a serious case of color blindness! :))

Wow...Friday already!  Where does the time go?  Hoping to get a little crafting in today.

And a Happy Crafting and Happy Friday to you!

Layout in an Hour!

I don't know why I'm obsessed with how long it takes me to complete a layout.  I keep telling myself I love every single second (for the most part) of creating a layout or card and if it takes me hours (read: DAYS) well, than so be it!  That is mostly true except that I wish I could love the process a little more quickly! LOL!!!  Sometimes I wish I could create something decent in under an hour....

Well, this layout was really done in under an hour.  I used DCWV Coral Couture Stack (and the coordinating cardstock) so that took some time away trying to match papers up.  I do LOVE DCWV stacks... I had an idea in mind...I had 4 pictures to use but decided on these three.  These are photos of Taylor just after she was born with her other grandparents, my son in law's parents, Jim and Andrea.   So, I just sort of cut and snipped and attached and adhered and was DONE!  The only "special" I put on were the cute little dimensional butterflies made with the EK Success punch that does the layers. 
You can see the butterflies a little more closely here:

I used a little Gelly Roll glitter pen work on the butterflies which is there, trust me, but difficult to see in the photo.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the title using a free font called Segoe Script I got HERE.  This is a great script font, I think, and was so easily welded and cut on my Cameo.  Look at the detail....even the little insides to the e's and a's cut well.

I cut it in green and then also did a shadow in the coral color. 

We went to a St. Patrick's Day celebration at a local vineyard yesterday (who could imagine grapes would grow in Georgia?!).  We drank Guiness stout, ate Guiness beef stew and listened to a few Irish jigs.  Fun time!
Here is Taylor enjoying herself...ok, I admit this picture I chose this mainly to show those eyelashes (untouched photo...I promise!)!

Here is another photo of her (very seriously checking me out!...probably thinking "move out of the way, Omie so I can see the musicians and dancing!"). 

 And here is my little guy with his new big boy hair cut surveying his vineyard and kingdom...

And yes...we all wore green!

Happy Crafting!

Flutterby Card

Don't you love the way kids say "flutterby" instead of "butterfly"? 
Being a speech therapist by trade I love the way children develop language.  Right now little David who is 2 and a few months will say "have it" (or more specifically he says "HAFF IT")  instead of "I want it."  For example if he drops an item on the floor out of his reach he will say "Omie, have it" which translates to "Omie, crawl on the floor under the table...watch out for the bread and butter I dropped and get my *fill in the blank* because I WANT IT NOW!" I know this for a fact.  Yesterday when we were at Cheesecake Factory celebrating my son's 25th birthday he said "Have it" several times to me as he dropped his car, his truck, his book, his crayons and his Thomas the Train at leas 21 times each.  I got very intimate with the floor under the table at Cheesecake Factory.  I will admit the floor looked much worse when we left than when we were seated!

Here is  today's Flutterby card:

The card was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest...a similar card but the inspiration card was done with the larger Martha Stewart punch. Click HERE is a link to that card. (Unfortunately the link does not take you to the site of the original card.)  I just see now where the card was also stitched.  I should have done that, too!  Now that I am pretty good at corraling my beast!
I used the new EK Success (Ok, it may not be new but it is new to me) to punch the butterflies.  The punch I used has three settings...one with a fully punched out butterfly with the more intricate look, a second that actually just punches out part of the inside of the butterfly and the third setting is a shadow or base.  In this card I only cut the "intricate" butterfly and the base.  I mounted the butterflies on kraft cardstock and then put it on a white card base.  The sentiment came from a Close to My Heart set I have.  I didn't use any foam tape but the butterflies are just glued in the centers so the wings are free and slightly bent to give a bit of dimension.

I think I will have to make more Flutterby cards!

Happy Crafting