Elana the Ballerina

Well hellooooo all :)

Hoping you're beginning the weekend off on a great note! I myself, had a good day - the boss was off, I got a lot done. Now I'm home, and getting ready for my older daughter's birthday party tomorrow. But wanted to stop by and share a card I made for my daughter's friend a few weeks ago.


This is an adorable set from Technique Tuesday. It also has a princess image that I used here. Elana is one of my daughter's best friend's at school.

Their birthday's are close together - so their parties are usually a week apart or so - this year is no different.

I added some sparkle to her ballerina outfit with a stardust pen then went over it with an aquapainter - super sparkly. Finished off with a PTI sentiment - and beautiful Berry Sorbet ribbon.

Do you have a fond birthday memory??? Mine was probably my 30th birthday in 2007, when I was preggers with my 2nd child. Friends and family came over to celebrate - it was just a nice, fun day. What about you??

Thanks for stopping by!!! Hope you have a great weekend!

Supplies:
Stamps: My Little Princess - Technique Tuesday, Birthday Basics - PTI
Ink: Memento Black, Brilliance Graphite Black, Berry Sorbet
Paper: Select White, Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush - PTI
Accessories: Berry Sorbet Polka Dot Ribbon (PTI), Copics, sakura stardust pen

WHAT'S for dinner?!?!?!?!? and a Challenge

So a quick post tonight. Going with the theme of Christmas again. *wink* This was another part of SIL and BIL's gift.

With my husband's family, there are so many of us, we put family names into a hat and pull one family to buy for. It makes it a little easier money wise...SIL and BIL like the Outback (me too really) and so part of their gift is to have a date night with yummy food :)

I wanted to come up with a really clever GC holder and all that, but as it always does, Christmas arrived, and I had run out of time...so I tried to dress up what I had.

I have the 'Punny Farm' set from My Favorite Things, and thought 'hmmmm....I need to use that cow...' So I made 'bulging' eyes on the cow - and made a computer generated sentiment. Cute, right? I thought it is dressed it up a little - makes you giggle, and then onto the gift :)

What do you think???


Now - some other business I need to attend to. My cyber-friend Holly has issued me a challenge...kind of a fun one really.

The rules for this challenge are - Go to where you store your photos on your computer. Go to the SIXTH folder and pick the SIXTH photo. Post that photo on your blog along with a SHORT story about it. Tag SIX people and leave a comment on their blog or email them letting them know you chose them.

Being a rule follower (well MOST of the time anyway) I went into my photos, and came up with this one:

This is my older daughter - on New Year's Eve...also her 5th birthday. We had these balloons in my car the night before, and put them in her room after she went to sleep - so when she woke up in the morning - she knew it was a special day. The day didn't go entirely as planned due to some snow - but it worked out great, spent with family, and it was a LOT of fun for us all!

Alright - now to pass it on...I've got a friend who just started her blog yesterday, so I'm breaking her in right - let me throw a challenge her way...stop by Laura's blog and show her some love - she's AWESOME - and you'll love her as much as I do :)

Here's my 6:
1. Laura
2. Sarah
3. Rebecca
4. Dawn
5. Molly
6. Cindy

Can't wait to see what thier photos are :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

A Little Digiscrappin'...

Well - sort of anyway.

This is more of a collage... I made this for my SIL and BIL for Christmas, but just got to give it to them on Saturday - so just in case she pops in to read, I didn't want her to see it.

Of COURSE I didn't take a picture of the actual COMPLETED project, it's 8x8 mounted on silver, then black 12x12. I framed it in a 12x12 scrapbook frame with some red primas...I'll have to invite myself over to take a picture of it on her wall ;).

Anyway - back to the photos. My SIL ALWAYS brings her camera - and she lets the nieces (the older ones that is) use it. I would be a basket case!! She's got a Canon rebel digital SLR. ooohhh it's nice. She's always taking pics of the kids and I thought I'd try to put something together to capture her favorite subject matter.

Most of these photos are actually hers. We lost all of our pics from 2008 except for some Smileboxes, Facebook and MySpace photo albums when our hard drive crashed back in November...I'm still REALLY sad about that. So I raided HER MySpace and Facebook, as well as my other SIL's and came up with this.

I don't actually consider this digiscrapping - only because, there are no embellies, that kind of thing...it's more of a digital collage, I guess, but I was super happy with the way it turned out.

Any of you who are familiar with the famous flautist, Sir James Galway will see him in 2 of the photos. My SIL got to meet him on St. Patrick's Day in New York City when he came and met with The Young Colonials, the Junior Fife and Drum Corps I used to belong to. Pretty neat.

Anyway - thanks for stopping by - hope you have a super day!!!

A Gift for a Sepcial Friend

My friend Gen - very near and dear to me.

She's had a rough go of it the last few years. Years ago, I had given her a set of rosary beads. They were green glass with shamrocks pressed into them. She's VERY IRISH, and proud of her heritage, so when I had seen those rosaries, I knew they'd be perfect for her.

She had said that she would pray on them so many times, she'd wear away the shamrocks on the beads. She loaned them out to people when they had a particular situation they needed to pray on, as she claimed at least for her, they had special power.

About a year or so ago, she loaned them out to someone, but can not remember who. And hasn't gotten them back. So while she would not normally flat out ASK for something - she did ask if I would get her a new set of rosaries. So I obliged.

I got them, and they came in a velvet hinged jewelry type box, which was nice, but I wanted to make it BETTER.

So I thought an thought and thought...and I was watching the Papertrey countdown, and saw Nichole Heady's project using Lauren's Timeless Templates - the stationary box.

I also remembered a project Lauren had done with it - to hold a pendant, with two tins...

I figured - I can do this...so I went ahead and printed out Lauren's template (available HERE) on printer paper, since I was using black CS and got to work.

I put the template onto the CS with Dotto repositionable adhesive. and trimmed and scored.

Then to make an insert to hold the beads. I went ahead and just used the template of the bottom of the box, except for the sides, I trimmed them to 1/2 inch, so it would sit nicel inside of the box. I also trimmed back the tab that folds over the front, to show more of what's in the box.

I cut slits in the top of the insert, and placed the rosaries through the slits. I used a small glue dot to hold up the end with the crucifix.

The sentiment is from PTI's Everyday Blessings. Thought it fit well with the gift. The ONLY thing I'm NOT happy about is the ribbon. I really wished that I had some ivory satin ribbon - but in all the ribbon I DO have, I could not find ANY. Nothing seemed to work right...but i needed something - so I settled on the silver ribbon - but it would have been PERFECT with the ivory satin.

Gen loved her gift, and I think it meant a little bit more - presented the way it was...

Thanks for stopping by!!

Lots of Sympathy...

UGH. Sympathy cards have to be my LEAST favorite cards to make - of course for the reason they are needed. At my job there were 4 people over the last 2 weeks that lost a parent. So sad.

I also had a card overdue to a friend whose Mom passed a way in early December...and another friend from SCS her Dad passed away...my heart breaks for all of them. I figured I'd share my cards for them here - 2 are very similar, yet a bit different - and the third is in the same style, but different in it's own way...

Here's the first one...

This is for my friend Barbara - her dad passed away last week. He was in an accident a few days before Christmas, and ultimately passed away just before the new year.

This card (5x5 base) was made by running it through my CB with the largest Labels 1 die with just the embossing pad...I left the die in place, and masked off the rest of the card, and sponged the brown inks (creamy caramel - close to cocoa) on.

The tree is from PTI's Father Knows Best set. I thought it worked well. Sentiment from Out on a Limb - which I use for just about ALL of my sympathy cards, as you will see ;) I love that set. It's easy to make it pretty.

Finished off the top with a little Dark chocolate satin ribbon...

This next card is for my friend Sarah - Sarah - if you want to be surprised DON'T LOOK - I thought about waiting to post - but figured I'd post all 3 cards together...

Sarah's Mom passed away in early December- and I've taken FOREVER to get this done and out to her - (I'm naughty, I know) This uses the same idea with the nesties and the embossing pad - but going back to my favorite - Out on a Limb...

This uses Kraft CS, and the flowers and sentiment are stamped with PTI's Fresh snow ink - which I just LOVE! The coverage is fabulous.

Flower centers kissed with some raspberry liquid pearls...


The sentiment on this one is from Everyday Blessings from PTI as well - another wonderful set. The sentiment panel is up on dimensionals...


and here's card number 3...

This is for 'peggysue' from SCS. Her Dad passed away from Cancer - have I said yet today that Cancer SUCKS??? I don't know if I have - but there, I said it. My Uncle Bill passed away in April of 07, and my friend Pam's husband Rodney was taken by this nasy disease in May of 2007. Not to mention countless numbers of people that lose their battle daily. It's quite staggering. I don't think I've met a single person who doesn't 'know someone'...KWIM?

ok - sorry for the tangent...back on track...I made this to send off to peggysue. Hmmm, does the set look familiar??? I was on a roll with these embossed borders - and had a lot of fun with them. It's hard to pick a favorite - I love them all for different reasons...so you tell me - which one do YOU like best, and why??

Thanks for stopping by!!

We're expecting more SNOW tomorrow - so I'm hoping to sneak away and stamp for a while...wish me luck!

Supplies:
Barbara's Card:
Stamps: PTI's Out on a Limb, Father Knows Best
Ink: Close to cocoa, creamy caramel, mellow moss, Brillance Chocolate (sentiment)
Paper: PTI's Vintage Cream
Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 1 dies, PTI Dark Chocolate Satin Ribbon

Sarah's card:
Stamps: PTI's Out on a Limb, Everyday Blessings
Ink: PTI's Fresh Snow, SU! Certainly Celery craft, Creamy Caramel Craft
Paper: SU! Kraft, Close to cocoa
Accessories: Spellbinders Classic rectangles (plain and scalloped), raspberry liquid pearls, dimensionals

Peggysue's card:
Stamps: PTI's Out on a Limb
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, SU!'s Bashful Blue, Close to cocoa, PTI's Spring Moss
Paper: PTI's Select White, SU!s Bashful Blue
Accessories: Spellbinders Classic Rectangles, Labels 1 dies, White liquid pearls, dimensionals

Icing...

Just thought I'd share a few photos of some of the ice we got here today...




















































Sometimes it's kind of fun to photograph something that holds still, and doesn't stick it's tongue out at you...

Viva la Verve challenge

Hi all! Been busy actually MAKING things, haven't had time to post really. Wanted to share my Mom's birthday card with you.

Over at SCS, on the Member Company forums, Verve Stamps has started some weekly sketch challenges...here's the first one:

Their twist was to add a bit of hardware...something metal. I had this great scrapbooking kit from SEI - Winnie's walls. Love these papers! I picked a few of the different patterns, and went at it!

The card base is Ruby Red, and the other CS colors used are So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, and Wild Wasabi. The silk flowers are by Making Memories - I got them from my friend Paulette. Sooo...to add in some metal. Took me a while to think of it, but I bought these brads from SU! back when they first came out, and haven't used ANY - so I broke them out, and put one on my card - I colored the brad in the center with a copic marker.

I only have one Verve set, and none of the sentiments fit what I was trying to achieve here (a birthday card) sooo, I used a sentiment from PTI's Birthday Basics. I obviously need to expand my Verve 'collection' but need to put the brakes on my spending for a while - unless I find someone to buy a bunch of my old stuff that I never use... *reminds self to start pulling stuff together for the bay*

The weather here is kind of nasty - rainy, icy, snowy - a perfect day to be inside!! Hope you all have a great day...thanks for stopping by!!

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI's Birthday Basics
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black
Paper: SU! Ruby Red, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Pumpkin Pie, SEI's Winnie's Walls collection
Accessories: SU! flower Brads, Making Memories Silk Flowers

Awesome friends - and same paper 2 ways...

So, have I mentioned that I have some of the COOLEST friends??? Well, I do. The other day, I got a package in the mail...thought it my be my order from Just-Rite, but nope...it had a return address from New Hampshire.

My SWEET friend Paulette sent a bunch of goodies to me - just because. Isn't that AWESOME??? Of course, I put everything away, and didn't take a picture before doing so, but lots of fun stuff for me to play with...a pretty spellbinders die, some awesome silk flowers, rub-ons, an awesome card with a picture of her beautiful children, some ribbon, some great 8x8 paper, which I've used today.

In the paper I rec'd, I used one of the patterns for 2 different cards.

One is for Paulette - to thank her for her awesome generosity...
This used the great pink papers she sent, as well as the SU! Rub-ons. Easy-peasy, simple layers, a rub-on, a little bling (also from Paulette) and instant pretty card!

This other card is for my sister's birthday. Can't really see from the pictures, but I went over all of the really light flowers on the paper with my clear spica glitter pen. Very subtle, but pretty shimmer. The butterflies are the Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch, enhanced with a little aMuse creative candy. The sentiment is from PTI's Birthday Basics.

Thanks for stopping by today - hope you enjoy your Sunday - back to work for me tomorrow...BLECH. I really enjoyed the time off with my girls this last week and a half.

Until next time!!

Supplies:

'For You Friend' Card:
Stamps: none
Ink: none
Paper: PTI Select White, SU! Black, patterned paper
Accessories: SU! Rub-ons, swarovski crystal

'Happy Birthday' Card:
Stamps: PTI Birthday Basics
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate
Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate, patterned paper
Accessories: MS Monarch Butterfly punch, aMuse creative candy, clear spica glitter pen

Happy Birthday Renée!!!

Today is my sweet friend Renée's birthday. One of my goals for 2009, is to be better about making B-day cards for ALL of my friends and getting them out ON TIME. Ok - so I got the card made...but it will be a bit late...sorry Renée. Her birthday is today (Jan. 2) but I just mailed it today...

I've been wanting to play with my new Raspberry Fizz Papers, so figured I'd break them out for my girl Renée :)

Here's her card:
The owl is from PTI's Wise Owl set, as well as the sentiment. Acutally, the only things not PTI are the Kraft base and the chocolate ribbon - otherwise, all PTI. Cutie patootie owl colored in with myCopics.

Thanks for stopping by - hope you are all enjoying the start of the weekend!

Supplies:
Stamps: Wise Owl
Ink: Memento Black, PTI Dark chocolate
Paper: SU! Kraft, PTI Dark chocolate, Ripe Avocado, select white, raspberry fizz patterned papers
Accessories: Copics, SU! Chocolate 5/8" grosgrain, PTI raspberry fizz 5/8" grosgrain