It's Birthday Time!

Hi everyone,
As I said on my last post, I need to make some birthday cards.  We have another one coming up at work soon so I thought I would get a jump start.  The image is from Prairie Fairy & I did the sentiment on the computer.  The lace is thanks to Martha Stewart & her fabulous punches. The paper is from K & Co.

I hope you are all having a great week! And a warmer one than ours. Tomorrow they are saying our morning commute will be in temps -20 below wind chill.  Oh, and to make it even more enjoyable, they are throwing in an inch or so of blowing snow.  That's just to get us conditioned to tomorrow night when the REAL snow & wind start & we get another 3-5 inches! YeeHaw!  Remind me again why I still live in the midwest!  Stay warm everyone & I'll catch you all later!                                  

Cupid Cat

What a beautiful, sunny day we have going today!  It's 46 degrees right now which is just awesome for Iowa in January!  The rest of the week is supposed to be colder, so we will just have to enjoy today.

This is the other Valentine I was working on yesterday. It's a Penny Black stamp I've had a long time. The paper is from The Paper Studio.  I used one of my Martha punches to create the border and another one for the hearts.

Time to get working on some birthday cards.  I'm way behind with everything. Have a wonderful week, everyone!  Catch you all later!                                                                                                

The Escapee!

Hi all,

Tonite I'm sharing a card that almost didn't make it. I started the afternoon coloring up 2 images, this one & a cute Penny Black I will share tomorrow. Well, with my usual lack of planning, I didn't allow enough room between the images & used most of it cutting out my Penny Black.  Since I wasn't thrilled with the giraffe in the first place, I was going to pitch it in the garbage.Then I got to playing around with some punches & next thing I knew I had made the poor condemned giraffe into a card.

The black heart background was made by punching both sides of my paper with a Martha punch I have had a couple of years & still adore. The red flower effect running down the middle is from a roll of Xmas felt border that I got on sale at Michaels for 80% off. How could I pass it up!! The giraffe is from Great Impressions & I've had him a long time too.  He didn't turn out to be my favorite card today, but since he was the one saved from the garbage bin, I thought he deserved first showing!

We woke up to about an inch of snow this morning, but the sun came out this afternoon & most of it is melting.  Hopefully, your weather is wonderful wherever you are as well!                                             

Catch you tomorrow!

Be Mine!

I was having DP withdrawal. With all the beautiful papers I have in my overflowing stash, I just had to pull one out. And this digi from Jellypark seemed to be the perfect choice. I had to add some flourish die cuts with one of my new Marianne Design dies. I LOVE all their dies!

I cut my card with another of my new jumbo dies. How did we ever get along before dies came on the scene?  I don't know about you, but I used to trim my hand cuts so much to try to "even" them up that I ended up with an image about half as small as I started out with some days.  One side always seemed to be just a hair "off" when I looked at it!  How wonderful it is now with dies!!

Better get busy.  Have a wonderful day tomorrow & try to stay warm if you are in the Midwest. Winter has made a return, complete with wind warnings, snow flurries & low temps. Yuk!!

Catch you all later!        

                                                                    

As promised...

Well, I promised a "simple" Valentine today & this is about as simple as they come. The stamp is from an old Stampin Up set I got at a sale. I used Stickles on the Valentine behind her back & slit her pouch for a Martha heart.  The black background was cut with the Cricut and the Elegant Edges cartridge. Yes, my daughter tried to tell me several years ago that I needed a Cricut & I argued that only scrapbookers needed them.  Card makers would have no use for them.  I wonder what seasonings I have to eat with my crow.  lol 

Our lovely, warm winter is coming to an end.  Today we got within a couple of degrees of a record again, but tomorrow they are saying we will have high wind warnings all day, low temps & light snow. Terrific!  I'm just way happy with all this warm weather we have had & I don't WANT the cold & snow to come back!  At least we got to enjoy winter for a few weeks & it was fantastic while it lasted!

Catch you later!

Button Valentine

I think I'm on Cricut overload!  Today's Valentine was made with 2 cuts from the Elegant Edges cartridge. The backdrop for the 2 buttons is a heart from Martha Stewart. And the image is from Jellypark Digi's.

I added some red stickles for the ribbon headband & dress. Tomorrow I will be back with another Valentine, but one a bit more simple.                                                                                                 

Catch you all later!                                                                                                                             

Pawsitively Terrific!

It's time to start the Valentines isn't it?  I had good intentions of cranking out several cards this afternoon, but Gail & I spent the afternoon playing with my Cricut instead.  Boy, there are a lot of things you can cut out.  The red background on this card was one of them. The image is from Inky Antics & I added hearts from 2 of Martha's punches. And, of course, there had to be glitter somewhere, right? The heart was the obvious place so out came the Stickles.

I also have a Valentine birthday card to make for one of the gals at work, so will have to be thinking about that one as well.  In the meantime, I'm going to watch the debate while I color up some more Valentines.   Hope your weekend is going well!                                                                                    

Catch you all later!

Happy New Year!

I don't know when it is officially "tacky" to still wish everyone a Happy New Year, but I think I am still safe doing it again on the 4th of the month.  I only did a couple of New Year cards, but decided to share one with you.  Who else, but Mo Manning, of course. 

I loved this image last year & knew I would never get around to doing it so I resisted.  I just had to have it this time.  You just don't find a lot of New Year images do you?  I colored it with copics.

Only 2 more days left until the weekend, but who's counting!  lol                                                   

Catch you all later!                                                                                                                                

A birthday card for Mike

How about a change of pace?  I had a couple of New Year's cards I could have posted, but decided to do a birthday card instead.  This one is for one of the guys at work who is forever giving me a hard time about cats. He threatens to bring "cat" stew to work for each food day.  Since I made him a cat card last year, I decided to give him a break & use this Mo Manning newspaper boy instead.  Isn't he just the cutest little guy? I colored him with copics and a little pencil in the tiny spots. The flourish behind him is that Spellbinder die I can't seem to put down.  I promise not to use it again for awhile. I have a whole box of dies I need to explore yet!

I almost forgot to post this new shot of my "helper" that I took yesterday.  You can see how totally worn out he is from assisting me all day!  Some day I'm going to get to sit in THAT chair! ha ha

Better get busy.  Catch you all later!

Thanking Santa..

Well,  gals, if you are anything like me, you have some thank you notes to send off.  Normally, I make up a bunch before Christmas, but with everything this year, I barely had time to finish my Christmas cards.  So last night was a much needed "catch up" session to get that done.  The stamp I used was from Whipper Snappers & is one I have had for years, but have always loved & use a lot. It's super fast to color up & I knew I could play with my new dies too.

I used my new Lifestyle Crafts oval dies (check out the huge number of sizes in each pkg!) and my new Spellbinder die, Perfect Petals.

If you are like me, you already have the Spellbinder ovals, but these new Lifestye Crafts dies come in 1/4 inch increments and each pkg. has from 11 to 13 different sizes which makes it a lot easier to find just that perfect size for an image!

Another version. It's amazing what just changing the paper color does.  And with an image this quick to color, you can make a lot of these very quickly.

And finally, another version created with a gorgeous die from Marianne Design. It's hard to see the embossing on the black paper in a photo, but it creates a gorgeous flower along the edge.

Better get busy & see what else I can come up with. I still have a lot more gorgeous dies like the ones I used on yesterday's post.  Catch you all later!